DESIGN AND TESTING OF AN AIRBAG SYSTEM FOR HIGH-MASS, HIGH-VELOCITY DECELERATION

The design and performance evaluation of an airbag system capable of d ecelerating masses in the range of hundreds to thousands of kilograms with impact velocities in the range of tens to hundreds of kilometers per hour is presented, First, a simplified incompressible flow analysi s of the airbag is utilized to derive the oriface venting area corresp onding to the ideal deceleration for a given impact velocity and packa ge mass. Second, testing with a small-scale model found three distinct control intervals during the deceleration Finally, a full-scale airba g system was constructed and data is presented on the deceleration, de celeration force, deceleration velocity, aii-bag stopping power and ov erall performance. The deceleration was experimentally optimized for a single impact velocity and package mass and an approximate correction factor was developed to predict the actual air venting required for e ach of the three control intervals in order to achieve the optimum dec eleration for any impact velocity and package mass.