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A new concept for interior padding for passenger automobiles is introduced. This type of padding is composed of closed cells filled with air, each cell contains an orifice or other type of restrictor which allows the air to escape and provide energy dissipation. The results of this study show that, in side impacts, this type of padding substantially reduces the side impact injury risk measures proposed by the biomechanics community. This padding is inexpensive, light weight and returns to its original shape after minor impacts. According to the results of the present study this padding is approximately twice as effective as other types of paddings studied.

This is the first paper in a new series to present a coherent theory of sensing frontal crashes, define the characteristics of future airbag sensor systems and to present examples of how this theory can be implemented. After summarizing the relevant conclusions from the authors' previous papers, this paper concludes that future systems should contain: crush zone sensors which sense relevant impacts to all portions of the vehicle front; an occupant position sensor as an input to the sensing system; and a mechanical safing/arming sensor having a long dwell. It is further concluded that cars should be designed so that only impacts involving the front of the vehicle need be sensed for the deployment of frontal protection airbags. This series of papers has the main goal of determining an overall theory of frontal crash sensing and the resulting desirable properties of sensor systems. A second goal is to give examples of how this theory can be realized in real sensor systems.

Velocity Scaling as a method of predicting the pulse shape for frontal barrier crashes at different velocities is reviewed. Frontal barrier crashes are found to have a nearly constant duration regardless of the velocity of impact. Non-barrier pulses however frequently have much longer durations. A methodology, called Crash Scaling is introduced to predict non-barrier pulses from barrier pulses. This methodology is then used to evaluate crush zone and non-crush zone sensor systems.

Timely sensing of side impacts for the purpose of deploying inflatable crash sensing apparatus presents many differences from the problem of frontal crash sensing. These. differences are discussed and some plausible sensing schemes are proposed and reviewed.