Designing Safer Vehicles with Realistic Simulation of Airbag Deployment

Airbags are one of the major protection systems used in a car crash. They play one of the most important roles in preventing severe injuries and fatalities during vehicle crashes. The advancement of new technology and airbag regulations necessitates that airbags be tested for safety in all kinds of scenarios, including situations where the occupant interacts with the airbag before it is fully deployed.

Understanding the gas flow of the airbag is critical to understanding airbag performance. The Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian Method in Abaqus/Explicit offers a sophisticated technique that can be used to simulate the dynamic gas flow in the airbag and realistically predict the shape of the airbag and pressure distribution during all stages of deployment.

With thanks to the BMW Group for providing the experimental results and the finite element models used in this study, SIMULIA has made available this latest Technology Brief detailing how realistic simulation is improving airbag safety.

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