GEOMETRICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE CURTAIN AIRBAG COVERAGE IN INDIAN PASSENGER VEHICLES

Worldwide accident statistics for passenger vehicles indicate that the number of pole side impacts usually constitute a small percentage of total accident numbers. However, the rate of fatalities in narrow object side impacts is usually the highest due to direct exposure of head with the pole/narrow objects. Curtain airbags are the most effective protective systems to prevent severe/fatal head injuries in side collisions with narrow objects such as poles or trees. One of the important parameter of curtain airbags is the inflated zone of the airbag, which decides the possibility of head exposure for occupants with different anthropometries with narrow objects. To address this issue, EuroNCAP first introduced the concept of Head Protection Device Assessment (HPDA) in 2015, which in addition to the performance requirements in dynamic test, assesses the deployed curtain airbag for its area coverage and inflated zones for various anthropometries over occupant rows. With introduction of Bharat NCAP in India since October 2023, a Perpendicular Pole Side Impact test is conducted for assessing the effectiveness of curtain airbags in a dynamic test, but currently, does not perform the HPD assessment. The paper studies the Head Protection Device / Curtain Airbags offered in Passenger Vehicles in India w.r.t. the Head Protection Device Geometric Assessment (HPDA). This assessment analyses the effectiveness of curtain airbags present in Indian passenger vehicles for protection of occupants of different anthropometries. The study is conducted on the vehicles that have been tested at ARAI and are also currently under sale in the Indian market.