Simulation of airbag inflation processes using a coupled fluid structure approach

Abstract

This paper explores simulation techniques for airbag inflation problems using a coupled fluid structure approach. It is to be seen as an initial study on the phenomena occurring in an airbag during a so called out of position occupant impact. The problem studied in this paper is an airbag which is set to impact a head form. The head form is positioned at a very short distance from the airbag. A multi material arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian technique in the explicit finite element code LS-DYNA is used for the fluid and it is coupled to the structure using a penalty based fluid structure contact algorithm. The results for the head form acceleration and velocity show a good agreement to experimentally obtained values. At the early stages of the inflation process a high pressure zone is found to develop between the gas inlet and the head form. Consequently the pressure difference between the inlet and the high pressure zone is too low for an a priori assumption of sonic flow at the inlet, which is a common requirement in the control volume models used in the industry today. © Spronger-Verlag 2002.