T. Snyder et al., DESIGN AND TESTING OF AN AIRBAG SYSTEM FOR HIGH-MASS, HIGH-VELOCITY DECELERATION, Journal of dynamic systems, measurement, and control, 119(4), 1997, pp. 631-637
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.