A REPORT

ON
DYNAMICS AND ANALYSIS OF
AIRBAGS

By: Akshat Joshi

(2015A4PS035)
Arpit Pradhan
(2015A4PS0264)
Prepared in partial fulfilment of
BITS F266
In

BITS PILANI K.K. BIRLA GOA CAMPUS

(27TH April, 2018)
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Abstract
This report is based on changes that have been made in the current established
theoretical model on airbag, i.e., The Drop Tower test. It is used widely in automotive
industry as the primary test for the implementation of an airbag in the vehicle. This report
tries to bring the current model close to practical aspect by implementing the friction
present between the airbag and the impactor. In the previous model, the impacting surface
was flat but as we change the shape of impacting surface, friction present between the
airbag and the impactor becomes accountable which is included in the theoretical
formulation.

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Table of Contents
1. Acknowledgment 3

2. Introduction of Airbag model

2.1. Airbag system 4

2.2. Simplifications and assumptions 5

3. Theoretical Model

3.1. Force equation between airbag and impactor 6

3.2. Volume of Airbag 7
3.3. Area of contact 8
3.4. Mass of Airbag chamber 9

4. On-going work 10

5. Conclusion 10

6. References 11

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Acknowledgement
This project work was carried out under the guidance of Prof. Kiran D. Mali and Mr.
Kedar Hendre under the course title ME F266. We would like to thank both of them for their
constant support and guidance during the entire period of project.

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1) Introduction of Airbag model
Airbag is an essential part of the occupant restraint system, and its insurance is broadly
acknowledged and examined. Airbags decreases around 20% casualty chances in frontal
accidents of autos. In studies, it’s found that Poisson marginal structural model to calculate
standardized mortality rate ratios (MRRs), and found that advanced airbag features appeared
protective for some occupants, but further study is needed. Subsequent to choosing the
underlying outline parameters and trial-creating a model, different tests and are directed,
including module test, sled test, crash test and CAE simulation test. These tests help
understanding and enhancing the airbags. ZHANG, et al, studied from the view of mechanics
and energy, put forward a restraint system concept design approach which based on single-
degree-of-freedom occupant-vehicle model (SDOF). DO, et al, established a theoretical model
for an airbag-based crew impact attenuation system of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle
and solved this theoretical model by the iterative algorithm method. This hypothetical model
incorporates certain changes that have been made in the previous model of drop tower test.
These changes are made to make the model more practical. Also this adds to a more profound
comprehension of the mechanical connection amongst occupants and airbags, and an
improvement for airbag's key parameters in the idea configuration stage. In addition, it gives
the scope of airbag's underlying outline parameters for the resulting CAE simulation, module
test, sled test, and so on.

1.1. Airbag System

An airbag system consists of three components. The airbag modules, crash

sensors and the electronic control unit (ECU). The airbag module consists of the
bag itself and an inflator. When the ECU detects a crash signal from a sensor, it
triggers the inflator of one or more airbag modules and the bag deploys. The sensor
can be an accelerometer and the ECU detects a crash when the deceleration of the
vehicle exceeds a certain limit but there are many more possibilities. The bag is
made of a thin nylon fabric. It is folded in a specific way and mounted in a cover
on the steering wheel or in the dashboard, seat, door or roof. The most common
inflators use solid propellants, while hybrid inflators use a combination of
compressed gas and a solid fuel. The chemical reaction that starts when the inflator
is triggered by the ECU produces a large volume of hot nitrogen gas in a very short
time (about 30 ms). It can be compared with a small explosion. The bag bursts
through its cover and unfolds at a speed of up to 300 kph. When the airbag is being
inflated, it immediately starts to exhaust gas. The airbag fabric is porous, but the
majority of the gas flows out of the airbag through a hole of a certain dimension,
the so called vent. The deflating bag ensures that the airbag gives way when the
occupant's head pushes against it. As a result, the head deceleration is distributed
more evenly over the available crash time, resulting in a lower maximum
deceleration of the occupant's head. A decrease of the maximum deceleration

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 reduces the risk of injuries for the occupants in the vehicle. The deceleration of the
head as a result of the airbag depends on the force on the head generated by the
airbag. This restraint force depends on the pressure inside the airbag, pb, influenced
by adding gas to or subtracting gas from the airbag. As a result, two inputs to
manipulate the pressure can be defined: an inflator to increase the pressure and a
vent to decrease the pressure.

As can be seen in Figure 1.1, there is a difference between the driver and passenger
side airbag. The circular shaped driver side airbag is much smaller and inflates more rapidly
than the rectangular shaped passenger side unit. The driver side airbag has less distance to
travel before contact with an occupant, since the bag is mounted closer to the driver via the
steering column. As a result, the passenger bag is typically three to five times bigger. Only
the driver side airbag is considered in this report.

1.2. Simplifications and Assumptions

While a vehicle is crashing heavily in the front, the forward movement of the front
passengers can be perceived as an acceleration process towards the instrument panel
starting with a zero speed in a reference coordinate system on a moving vehicle. During
this process, airbags are inflated to tolerate parts of the initial kinetic energies of occupants,
and compressed to absorb these energies. Meanwhile, the gas in airbags discharges from
vents due to the high pressure of airbag chamber compared with the atmosphere pressure,
and this drastic venting process releases the energies absorbed by airbags. Based on the
above overview, the mechanics relationship between occupants and airbags can be
regarded as a simplified model, in which an impactor impacts an airbag with vents on at a
given speed, as shown in Fig. 1.

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 In general, module tests for airbags are presentations of the above simplified model,
such as the impactor test, drop tower test. As an elementary module test method to investigate
the performance of airbags, the drop tower test has been widely used in the product
development phase of airbags. But this model essentially represents an ideal case in which the
impactor surface is flat which will not be the case when an actual person will hit the airbag
during accident. So to make it a more realistic model and also to implement friction between
airbag and the impactor, the surface should be spherical and not flat.

Certain assumptions are considered to make the model simple that are as follows. First,
the motion of the impactor occurs only in the direction perpendicular to the upper surface of
airbag’s support; second, the material of the airbag’s fabric is inelastic, and the mass of the
airbag is neglected; third, the gas in the airbag chamber acts as an ideal gas with a uniform
distribution, and the temperature in the airbag remains constant; fourth, the critical moment of
the contact between the impactor and the airbag is just after the moment when the inflator has
finished its inflating process; fifth, the flow area of each vent remains the same during the
whole impact process; sixth, the exhausted gas mass passing through vents is approximate to
a one-dimensional, quasi-steady, and isentropic outflow; and seventh, the impactor is assumed
to be rigid.

2) Theoretical model

2.1 Force equations between airbag and impactor:

As per the assumptions, in the SDOF system, the impactor applies its weight, M C g
downwards, the friction force on the impactor, f sin  which is present in between the airbag
fabric and the impactor, is in upward direction. Also the friction is present in the whole
spherical region so only its sin θ component will be the net effective friction. The force due to

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 pressure difference, ( P  Patm ) Sc is in upward direction. So, the net force on the impactor can
be written as,
M C g  f sin   ( P  Patm ) Sc  M c a

Where Mc is the mass of the impactor, p is the pressure of the airbag chamber, Patm is the
atmosphere pressure, Sc is the contact area between the impactor and the airbag, f is the friction
present between airbag and the impactor, θ is the varying angle made by airbag surface (which is
in contact with the impactor) with the horizontal, g is the gravitational acceleration, and a
represents the vertical acceleration of the impactor, which is known as the impactor response.
Since the gas in the airbag chamber is assumed as ideal gas and the temperature in the
airbag chamber remains constant, therefore, based on the ideal gas state equation, the relation
between the pressure of airbag chamber and the mass density of the gas in the airbag chamber can
be acquired
m RT
pV  RT , p  
M M
Where, R is the gas constant and V is the volume of the airbag chamber. Separately, T, M,
m, and ρ represent the average temperature, the molar mass, the mass and the mass density of the
gas in the airbag chamber. Substituting this equation in the impactor acceleration, we get
f sin  RT S
ag  (  Patm ) c
Mc M Mc

2.2 Volume of Airbag:

The volume of airbag is assumed to be divided in three parts: Cylindrical, annular-ring
and section of sphere. The volume of cylindrical part (V1) changes (width changes) as the
impactor penetrates onto the surface of the airbag. The annular region volume is derived from
an assumption that its circumference remains constant (airbag is considered as inelastic). V3
also changes with time as the penetrated depth changes from 0 to a certain value of x.

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 2
 y
Cylindrical volume, V1     X
2

2 2
( y  X )/2 X  L
Annular region volume, V2  
y /2
4 x     x   dx
2  2

x x
 x 2 L x 3  
Spherical section volume, V3     
 2 3   x 0

Total Volume, V  V1  V2  V3

2 2
x  L
x
y ( y  x )/2
V =  ( ) 2 x  y /2 4 x     x   dx    ( x 2  2rx)dx
2 2  2 0

Where, r is the radius of curvature of impactor surface and x is the variable length of
impactor which is penetrated onto the airbag surface.

2.3 Area of contact:

The area of contact is varying as the impactor surface goes deep onto the airbag surface.

Sc  2 rx

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 Where r is the radius of curvature of the impactor surface and x is the penetrated depth
at some instant.

2.4 Mass of the Airbag chamber:

Generally a vent is circular and its area directly affects the exhausted gas mass inside airbag.

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dm0   Ahdt , A   d 2
4
t

Total mass inside the airbag, m  m(tcritical )  m0  m(tcritical )  2 dm0
0

Where, A is the vent area, m(tcritical) is the mass of the gas in the airbag chamber at the
time when the inflator has just finished its inflating process, also known as the total inflated gas
mass generated by the inflator, and mo is total exhausted gas mass due to vents of the airbag
chamber.
Based on the momentum theorem, the gas mass element is analyzed from a kinetic
aspect:

hdm0  F0 dt , F0  ( p  patm ) A

Constructing simultaneous equations,

p  patm p  patm
t

h Therefore, m  m(tcritical )  2   A dt
 0


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 After substituting the above equations in impactor’s acceleration, we get

 t 
 m(tcritical )  2  Ahdt 
f sin  RT   2 rx
ag ( 
0
  Patm )
Mc M 2 2 Mc
  ( y ) 2 X  ( y  X )/2 4 x  X    x  L  dx   [( x l  x )]x  x 
2 3

 2 y /2   
2 

2 2 3
x 0


The impactor response is on the left side of this equation and the airbag’s main design
parameters are on the right side, which include the mass of the gas in the airbag chamber at the
time when the inflator has just finished its inflating process, the vent area, etc. These design
parameters could be efficiently optimized in a given scope of occupant response. Design
parameters in the above equation, like the pressure of the airbag chamber and the mass density
of the gas in the airbag chamber, are variables which change with each other and defined as
state parameters of the airbag chamber. This circular interaction results in equations which
could not be directly solved, yet the iterative algorithm method serves as a proper solution.
This equation cannot be solved directly hence we require iterative algorithm. It can be
solved in MATLAB and the acceleration vs time graph for the impactor can be asserted from
the generated code.

3 On-going work:
Implementation of the theoretical model in the MATLAB code to find the impactor’s
acceleration at every instant for different parameters.

4 Conclusion:
The modified drop tower test is a better practical approach to solve and simulate the
dynamics of airbag because it incorporates a better shape of impactor while impacting. Also
friction present between the airbag and the impactor is taken into account which was not been
considered in the original drop tower test.

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References
 Establishment and Validation for the Theoretical Model of the Vehicle Airbag ZHANG
Junyuan, JIN Yang, XIE Lizhe, and CHEN Chao State Key Laboratory of Automobile
Simulation and Control, Jilin University, Changchun 130025, China,2 China Automotive
Technology & Research Center, Tianjin 300300, China

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