Simple and more sophisticated empirical airbag models have been developed since the early seventies. By discretization of the fabric skin of the airbag in finite elements the motion of the different parts of the fabric and contacts with penetrating objects is described more accurately than by the empirical models. This is particularly useful for oblique and out-of-position impacts. The fabric material behaviour is described in a more realistic way allowing the calculation of the stress distribution in the airbag fabric. The newly developed MADYMO finite element (FE) airbag model is optimized for airbag simulations in a crash victim simulation environment. The software implementation resulted in a flexible and user-friendly simulation tool. The approach and theory of the MADYMO FE airbag are described. The results of two out-of-position simulations and tests are presented. The agreement between the measured and calculated results is good while computing times are quite reasonable. (A)
Abstract