SIMULATION OF AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT

by

MURUGAMANI .V

A thesis submitted to the

FACULTY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

In partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the award of the degree of

MASTER OF ENGINEERING
in
ENGINEERING DESIGN

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, GUINDY

ANNA UNIVERSITY
CHENNAI 600025

MAY 2008

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BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that the thesis titledSIMULATION OF AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT

is the bonafide work of MURUGAMANI.V (Reg. No. 200621426), who carried
out the project under my supervision. Certified further, that to the best of my
knowledge the work reported herein does not form part of any other thesis or
dissertation on the basis of which a degree or award was conferred on an earlier
occasion on this or any other candidate.

Dr. G. THANIGAIYARASU
Professor & Head
Department of Mechanical Engg.
College of Engineering Guindy
Anna University
Chennai 600 025.

Dr. A. ELAYA PERUMAL

Asst. Professor & Guide
Engineering Design Division
College of Engineering Guindy
Anna University
Chennai 600 025.

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600 025

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ABSTRACT

Degree and Branch

M. E. ENGINEERING DESIGN

Month and Year of Submission

MAY 2008

Title of the Project Work

SIMULATION OF AIRBAG
DEPLOYMENT

Name of the Student

MURUGAMANI.V

Roll number

200621426

Name and Designation of Internal

Dr. A. ELAYA PERUMAL

Asst. Professor,
Engineering Design Division
College of Engineering Guindy (CEG)
Anna University
Chennai 600 025

Guide

Airbag is an important safety component in passenger vehicles. From accident survey

history, more lives have been rescued with the help of airbag. Most occupants are injured in
frontal accidents. Next to frontal cases, side impact shows the highest numbers, followed by
rear impact and rollover. The airbag in combination with seatbelt improves the benefits of the
airbag deployment.

To simulate the airbag response it is important to obtain a realistic inflating process,

therefore folded airbags must be generated. An algorithm is developed for folding the airbag.
Two dimensional geometry of airbag is taken and is extended to 3-Dimensional. The folding
points are calculated using the transformation matrices. The program for the folding the airbag

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is done using MATLAB. The output of the MATLAB program is folded points. Using these
points, Model is created in HyperMesh. Suitable boundary conditions are applied to the
meshed model.
The dynamic behavior of the airbag deployment process is simulated by explicit timestepping schemes. To get an approximation of the time-dependent behavior of the interior
pressure of the bag, the Control Volume technique is used. This method is especially suited for
the complex, highly nonlinear systems arising from complicated contact situations in a
deploying airbag from the initially folded situation. The folded model of the airbag is
simulated using LS-DYNA.

Place: Chennai

Date:

(MURUGAMANI.V)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am most obliged to my beloved guide Dr.A.ELAYA PERUMAL, Asst.Professor,
Engineering Design Division for his constant inspiration, encouragement and guidance
throughout the project work. I am deeply indebted for his affectionate and friendly nature.
Also I would like to convey my sincere thanks to him for permitting me to do this project.

I express

my

heart-felt

gratitude

and

sincere

thanks

to Dr. G.

THANIGAIYARASU, Professor & Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, for his

kindhearted help and co-operation shown in his thesis.

I express my sincere thanks to Dr. V. SUNDARESWARAN, Professor and Head of

Engineering Design Division, College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University, Chennai, for
his kindhearted help and co-operation shown in this thesis.

Also I express my heartful gratitude and sincere thanks to all the faculty members,
Engineering design division, Anna University, my class mates and friends for giving me
useful comments during the course of this project and making this work a rewarding
experience for me.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPT

TITLE

ER NO.

PAGE
NO.

ABSTRACT (TAMIL)

iii

ABSTRACT (ENGLISH)

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF TABLES

xi

LIST OF SYMBOLS

xii

INTRODUCTION

1.1

AIRBAG

1.2

AIRBAG SYSTEM

1.2.1 Crash Sensor

1.2.2 Front Driver Airbag

1.2.3 Front Passenger Airbag

INFLATOR

1.2.1 Types

1.2.2 Single Stage Inflator

1.2.3 Dual Stage Inflator

1.4

NOZZLE

1.5

AIRBAG COVER

1.6

SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

AIRBAG FOLDING AND SIMULATION METHODS

10

2.1

INTRODUCTION

10

2.2

FOLDING METHODS

10

2.2.1 Simulation of The Flatten/ Folding Process

10

2.2.2 Mesh 2D Surfaces and Fold the mesh

10

2.2.3 Mesh 3D Surfaces, Flatten and Fold the Mesh

11

SIMULATION METHODS

11

1.3

2.3

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11

2.3.2. Methods

11

2.3.1.1 Control Volume Method

12

2.3.1.2 ALE Method

13

FOLDING AND SIMULATION

16

3.1

INTRODUCTION

16

3.2

FOLDING OF PASSENGER AIRBAG

16

3.3

FINITE ELEMENT MODELING

21

3.3.1 Modeling

22

3.3.2 Cleaning Up The Geometry

22

3.3.3 Material Properties

22

3.3.4 Mesh Generation

23

3.3.5 Model Checking

25

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

26

4.1

RESULTS

26

4.2

DISCUSSION

27

CONCLUSION

28

APPENDIX

29

REFERENCES

32

2.3.1 Introduction

ANNEXURE

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE
NO
1.1

TITLE

PAGE NO

Airbag Control Module

1.2

Front Driver Airbag

1.3

Front Passenger Airbag

1.4

Single Stage Inflator

2.2

Dual Stage Inflator

2.3

Nozzle with Inflator

2.1

Control Volume

13

3.1

Inflated Passenger Airbag Dimensions

17

3.2

CAD Model

17

3.3

Folding Points Calibration

18

3.4

First Fold in 2-D

19

3.5

First Fold in 3-D

21

3.6

Second Fold in 3-D

21

3.7

Third Fold in 3-D

21

3.8

Shell Element Description

23

3.9

Airbag with Rigid Plate Mesh

25

4.1

Passenger Airbag Kinematics

26

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO
3.1

TITLE

PAGE NO

Passenger Airbag Dimensional Details

18

Material Properties of Airbag

22

3.3

Material Properties of Rigid Plate

23

3.4

Flow Properties for Control Volume

24

3.2

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LIST OF SYMBOLS

Density in kg/m3

Specific heat ratio = 1.4

ij, j

Cauchy stress in N/m2

Angle between the vertices in degrees

Folding angle in degrees

A0

Inflator area in mm2

Airbag breadth in mm

bi

Body force in N

Ci

Convective velocity vector in m/s

cp

Specific heat at constant pressure in J/kg/k

cv

Specific heat at constant volume in J/kg/k

dn

Penetration depth of the bag node at time tn in mm

Internal energy in kJ

Fn

Penalty force in N

gc

Gravitational constant = 1

Airbag height in mm

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Penalty stiffness for FSI coupling in N/S

Isentropic coefficient

Airbag length in mm

mm
.

mtot
.

mlost

Mass flow rate into the control volume in kg/s

Total mass flow rate kg/s
Mass loss kg/s

nf

Number of folds

Pressure in the control volume in MN/mm

pi

Inflator pressure in MN/mm2

Folding Points in x, y & z coordinates

Time intervals in seconds

Tin

Temperature input for control volume in k

Material velocity vector in mm/s

Vb n + 1 / 2

Velocity of the bag in mm/s

Vgn + 1/ 2

Velocity of the coupling fluid node in mm/s

C0

Inflator orifice coefficient