The Driver Side Air Bag Development for Light Truck

This study presents a driver side airbag development procedure of a cab-over type light truck which weighs from 2000kg to 3500kg. For the airbag development, crash tests are performed according to FMVSS 208 regulation used for passenger car. Test results are used to develop an airbag ECU and get a vehicle pulse for computer simulation and sled test. This study proposes a modified airbag deployment criterion, T_150mm−25ms, for cab-over type truck. A finite element computer model for occupant behavior analysis is developed and utilized to find optimal airbag parameter values. Then, sled test is performed to verify the computed airbag parameter values and tune them if necessary. Finally, crash test equipped with airbag is performed again to check the improvement of injury coefficients. This study suggests three things to overcome the difficulties in femur protection capability.