Design of an airbag system of a mid-sized automobile for pedestrian protection

Abstract

The rate of fatalities in vehicle-to-pedestrian crashes is high with respect to the frequency of occurrence. In recent years, a pedestrian safety system, which consists of a pop-up hood and a pedestrian airbag, was developed to reduce pedestrian injuries. However, the effects of the system and a reasonable design direction were not clearly established. In this research, the protection performance of the pedestrian safety system was investigated using actual impact tests. The pedestrian safety system was installed in a mid-size vehicle and tested according to the headform test of the New Car Assessment Program. The necessity and usefulness of the safety system using the test results are discussed. These results are incorporated into the simulation modelling process. The airbag system is designed to reduce head injuries by using computational impact analysis. Two categories are considered when designing the system: the design of the airbag housing and the design of the airbag itself. The airbag housing is designed by selecting appropriate materials. The design flow for the pedestrian airbag employs the orthogonal array and the response surface method. The newly designed airbag system reduces the severity of head injuries.