Investigation on Dynamic Expansion Response and Structural Safety Assessment of Typical Polygonal Fabric Gasbags

The geometric structure of a gas bag has a profound effect on its effectiveness in transferring energy and reliability of its structure when rapidly expanding. Even though there have been considerable improvements in high-performance composite materials such as Kevlar, the transient dynamic reaction and possible rupture mechanisms associated with particular polygon shapes have been greatly unexplored. In this paper, we focus on conventional polygonal gas bags, and perform extensive inflation tests using high-accuracy transient data recorders to monitor the development of the dynamic pressure. In order to overcome the limitations of physical testing, a highly non-linear dynamic finite element model - based upon the application of the *MAT_FABRIC material model in LS-DYNA - is used. This technique allows the systematic examination of how changes in geometric parameters affect the performance of payload dispersion and membrane stress distribution. The results indicate unique ways of deploying depending on their geometry. The circular gas bags are capable of obtaining a velocity of the payload of 4.23 m/s but have high stress concentrations of up to 426 MPa due to the lack of geometric boundaries which make them prone to tearing failure. Rectangular gas bags with very large aspect ratios will experience a tubular expansion deformation that causes energy transfer efficiency to plummet; the release speed of these types of gas bags falls below 2.77 m/s. Ultimately, the optimal structural design is a regular hexagonal shape that optimally balances work performance and structural safety. It can keep good levels of energy transfer efficiency with a final release velocity of 4.12 m/s. Moreover, it successfully stops the continuous hoop tension and reduces the peak stress by around 46 percent through straight edge boundary constraints. This complete research offers an adequate scientific foundation to the anti-burst design of sophisticated polygonal gas bags.