Curtain Airbag design for Robust Deployment

Abstract

When Curtain Side Airbags are validated in real environment, a great variability in deployment behavior and performance is observed and many optimization loops are executed to mitigate that variability, with potential extra costs and time delays. The present study analyzes the Curtain Airbag performance in order to develop design best practices able to reduce the variability of his behavior and maximize the performance of his deployment. To achieve this goal the DFSS methodology has been applied and ad hoc experimental parameters have been identified to evaluate Curtain Airbag behavior. Noise factors and control factors have been defined and experimental testing has been executed to evaluate the contribution of each control factor to the overall performance. Finally, control factors that maximize the Signal to Noise ratio and the airbag performance have been chosen and translated into engineering best practices.