Years of testing and field experience demonstrate that today's airbags in combination with safety belts are performing well and that the vast majority of airbag-related injuries caused by contact with an inflating airbag are minor. However, the reported incidence of severe-to-fatal injuries establish a need to further enhance airbag designs. The present paper introduces an overview of both testing and math modeling of driver airbags. This overview helps to identify both the design opportunities and the design constraints for such enhancements. The design parameter that shows the greatest significance is the inflator. The design constraint that poses the most difficulty is the unbelted occupant test requirement. A case is accordingly made for lower-energy inflators as a means to further reduce the risk of injury from an inflating airbag. Toward that end, a new inflator specification is proposed to facilitate understanding of an inflator's performance in occupant-near-module scenarios. Additionally, the implications of implementing lower-energy inflators are addressed from the standpoint of both FMVSS 208 and real-world frontal collisions. Finally, a critical review of the relevance of unbelted testing is presented. (A)
Abstract