Effectiveness of Active Hood and Pedestrian Protection Airbag Based on Real Vehicle Impact Test

Abstract

Pedestrian to vehicle traffic accidents show a very high mortality rate compared to the frequency of occurrence. In order to improve the pedestrian protection performance of the vehicle, the korean government added a "pedestrian safety" entry from the year 2007. The performance for pedestrian protection of current vehicles gradually improved compared to the past, but it is still insufficient. It was found that the pedestrian protection performance was very weak, such as the top of the bonnet, the A-pillar and under the front windshield. A application of an active hood and pedestrian protection airbags can be countermeasures for these weak points of pedestrian safety. The active hood and pedestrian protection airbags are designed and manufactured to apply to the top of the hood and to the bottom of the windshield. The manufactured system is equipped in a test vehicle and evaluated based on the Korea New Car Assessment Program(KNCAP) test procedures for the performance of pedestrian safety. As a result, the outstanding effect of pedestrian protection has been achieved by the active hood and the pedestrian protection airbag. The rates of pedestrian injury are reduced by 82.2% and 95.4%, respectively.