An air bag crash sensor study was made to find the "best" sensor system for the 1986 Taurus/Sable structure. Fundamental to the study was the development of a series of vehicle crash tests, representative of real-world crashes. Vehicle impact patterns, varying in terms of damage area, direction, damage width, damage height, brake "dive," object contacted and multiple impacts were studied and coordinated with field data from the existing Tempo/Topaz air bag fleet to design the crash tests. To avoid a prohibitive number of repetitious crash tests, the study combined data from the crash tests with reliable mathematical models of electronic and electromechanical sensors to exhaustively search for the "optimal" sensor design. The results indicate that single location crash sensing probably would not meet the ideal standards of performance established for the study. Both a two-location, two-calibration and a three-location, two-calibration sensing system fulfilled the crash discrimination requirements.
Abstract