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A passenger airbag is an important part of a vehicle restraint system which provides supplemental protection to an occupant in a crash event. New Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards No. 208 requires considering multiple crash scenarios at different speeds with various sizes of occupants both belted and unbelted. The increased complexity of the new requirements makes the selection of an optimal airbag shape a new challenge. The aim of this research is to present an automated optimization framework to facilitate the airbag shape design process by integrating advanced tools and technologies, including system integration, numerical optimization, robust assessment, and occupant simulation. A real-world frontal impact application is used to demonstrate the methodology.

This paper reviews the structural assessment of a compact vehicle under frontal impact according to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 204 Requirement – Steering Control Reward Displacement. The steering column intrusion analysis is made adding a collapsible joint under axial load. Injury analysis is assessed for the driver according to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 Requirement – Occupant Crash Protection – considering HIC (Head Injury Criterion), Chest Deceleration, Chest Deflection and Femur Load. Computational models have been built based on Ford Motor Company experience using MECALOG RADIOSS (FEA Code) and TNO - MADYMO (Occupant Code).