A study on the effect of airbag vent diameter on head injury criterion of driver airbag using experimenting and finite element method

Abstract

Inflatable restraint systems have significant roles in the protection of the vehicle occupants during an accident. The performance of these components directly depends on the parameters of the cushion. An airbag vent is somehow an exhaust which releases gases within the airbag to the ambient. The diameter of the vent is a parameter in adjustment of the head injury criterion (HIC) of the airbag. In this research, a head form testing apparatus has been developed in order to perform the head impact test on deployed airbags in simulation validation procedure. A number of experimental and FEM head form tests are executed so as to endorse the accuracy of the FEM simulation through the validation procedure. The validated FEM model is utilised to analyse the effectiveness of the diameter of the vent in HIC of the airbag. An optimum value for vent diameter is obtained from the results of FEM tests.