Design Sensitivity Study of Passenger Airbag Shape to Meet Head Restraint Performance for Different Occupant Size in Frontal Impact

Range of restraint performance needs to cover different occupant restraint conditions and occupant size in accordance to government regulation and New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) tests. It should be effective in real-world safety also. There are several ways to accomplish the required safety performance. For example, adaptive system of airbag and belt load- limiter could be adjusted (i) depending on the occupant size, sensed by weight sensor and (ii) due to change in restraint condition, when buckle latch switch is introduced. The present study focused on the sensitivity of the airbag shape on occupant head restraint performance and investigated the possibility to meet the required level of restraint performance by manipulating only the airbag shape with the help of airbag stiffness performance diagram. In conclusion, to achieve the near optimum head restraint performance, by introducing S-shape in vertical direction at the center of the airbag instead of a Flat-shape airbag, the airbag stiffness can be tuned to meet performance requirements of two different size dummies AM50 and AF05 simultaneously.