Investigation on Wearable Airbags for Motorcyclists Through Simulations and Experimental Tests

Abstract

Software for the simulation of airbags has been available for more than three decades and today is widely used in the automotive industry. Nonetheless, since the introduction of the first wearable airbags for motorcycle riders in the late 1990s, these numerical tools have seen only little application in this fairly new field. The objective of this research is to assess the performance of wearable airbag systems for motorcyclists through experimental tests and numerical simulation. Virtual models are created for two typical test set-ups and numerical results are compared against the corresponding experimental findings. The first test considered is the drop test, derived from the set-up used in EN 1621 for the certification of protectors and employed here to calibrate the finite element airbag model. The second test scenario is the thorax impact test, described in 49 CFR 572 (high-speed test) and SAE J2779 (low-speed test). This set-up, in which the airbag is fitted to a Hybrid III 50th dummy, is used to assess the airbag's performance in terms of reduction of peak chest deflection and to carry out a parametric analysis on the main airbag parameters: inflation pressure and inflated thickness.

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“…When operating an airbag system in a fall situation, the relative lower air pressure compared to impact magnitude causes a large deformation of foam and contact area with the floor, thereby allowing the body segment to directly contact the floor [21]. In contrast, there is a risk of injury when a relatively high pressure causes a secondary impact due to recoil between the foam and body segment [22]. To prevent possible injuries, it is necessary to optimally control the airbag expansion rate according to the impact magnitude for pre-impact fall detection.…”