Performance Evaluation of Door & Seat Side-Impact Airbags for Passenger Van and Sport-Utility Vehicles

Side impact accounts for a significant source of societal harm, injury and death. To address this issue, Europe and US have introduced legislation to be met for the new vehicle certification. In an effort to meet these regulations and the market demand for safety, Automotive manufacturers have significantly improved vehicle side structure integrity and introduced side impact airbags are for added protection.

Today, passenger vans, light truck and sport-utility type vehicles are all popular consumer choices in the US. These vehicles differ significantly from passenger cars in many respects and as such need special design considerations for side airbags.

Here, MADYMO-3D model of a generic passenger van / Sport-Utility type vehicle is created and correlated to FMVSS-214 side impact crash test. This model is used to evaluate both door and seat mounted side airbag designs in different orientations at standard test impact condition and at a higher speed. The results are presented and the significance of side airbag design for occupant protection is discussed.