System Integration and Design Optimization of Passenger Airbag Shapes

Passenger airbag is an important vehicle passive safety device to protect occupant safety. The shape of a passenger airbag plays an important role in determining how well the device is capable of protecting occupants. Traditionally, the airbag shape is designed manually, using a trial and error method. The lines of a passenger airbag shape are first drawn. After meshing the airbag, it is inserted into multiple occupant restraint system models. Then, run the multiple occupant models for different crash scenario and evaluate the occupant injury numbers. The process is iterated until a design meets all occupant injury criteria. The manual process is not only time-consuming, but also has little chance to find the optimal solutions if any. This paper first automates the whole design process using an advanced integration tool. Advanced optimization method is then used to find the optimal airbag shape systematically. A real-world frontal impact application with different dummies, belted and/or unbelted, at different impact speeds is used to demonstrate the methodology.Copyright © 2005 by ASME