Design and simulation of a pedestrian protection airbag using corpuscular particle method

A methodology for evaluation of the effectiveness of a pedestrian protection airbag (PPA) based on the corpuscular particle method (CPM) is developed. Despite previous studies on PPA efficiency, so far, no research has employed the CPM for examining the influence of inflator gas flow on the performance of PPA and head injuries. A pedestrian headform was impacted into nine points on the windshield and A-pillars. Then, with a PPA mounted on the vehicle, headform impact simulations were conducted. Simulations of airbag deployment using CPM were compared with experimental test data and those without PPA. Simulation results prove that using a PPA can reduce head injuries by up to 90% near A-pillars. Study results suggest that CPM can precisely capture the realistic kinematics of airbag deployment, particularly during the early deployment phase. It also shows that the developed method can be used to enhance the production of various pedestrian protection technologies.