Search Results

A new fast combustion inflator based on the reactions of methane-oxygen mixtures has been developed. The performance of this inflator was evaluated in terms of pressure-time relationships inside the inflator and in a receiving tank simulating an air bag and by assessing the temperature-time relationship in the tank. In order to develop this inflator, several critical issues were studied, including stoichiometry, initial mixture pressure and extreme ambient conditions. Other design parameters such as burst disk thickness and type, ignition device, tank purging gas, concentration of carbon monoxide, severity of temperature in the tank, and the inflator size were investigated and optimized. To simulate the behavior of this inflator, a theoretical and integrated model was developed. The experimental results made at different conditions were found to be in agreement with the model.

A systematic study of the principles of a novel airbag inflator type, the‘Stored Liquefied Gas Inflator’,was performed by means of tank tests and high-speed cinematography. The new inflator is intended primarily for side-impact airbags and is based on the rapid flashing of liquefied CO2 . The new approach leads to a simple, inexpensive, environmentally attractive and safe device. Experiments were performed at different initial vessel and tank conditions and allowed the identification of the dominant physical phenomena in the components of the system, the definition of the design parameters, and the assessment of the performance. The optimal storage pressure was determined and the inflator’s behavior was observed to depend strongly on ambient temperature. The addition of small amounts of various organic liquids to the liquefied CO2 to a significant increase in performance. The potential of the novel inflator was assessed and suggestions to increase its performance were formulated.