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The main role of CAB(side curtain airbag) is to protect the occupant's head in the event of side crash. The updated US NCAP for model year 2010 requires more extended coverage of CAB. It is not only required to cover the 50th%ile driver but also the 5th%ile driver and rear passenger. Although the general safety analysis model using only concerned sub-structure of the vehicle and prescribed structural motion is sufficient to handle frequent jobs, the analysis model with increased efficiency is needed when optimization is to be studied as it requires more runs and the model gets enlarged to consider extended sub-structure. In this study, three types of simplified analysis models are introduced. The first has an impactor which is composed of the head and neck with prescribed translational motions. It only uses the upper parts of the original sub-structure hence the run time is saved by 60∼70%.

Requirements of side curtain airbag have continued to increase. The revised SINCAP, FMVSS-226 ejection mitigation and small overlap of IIHS had added these requirements. To meet all the requirements, high inflator energy and complex cushion shape became necessary. Such situations increased possibility of cushion failure while deploying. Unfortunately, all the design verification tests are usually completed in a relatively latter stage of development and repetitive testing is needed to consider large dispersion of failure probability distribution. Therefore, verification and design improvement by numerical simulation in an early stage are desirable. A simulation method which can verify CAB deployment was developed in this study. The developed method has three distinct features. Firstly, nonlinear fabric materials and membrane finite elements are used to consider fracture of cushion fabric. Secondly, a pre-simulation procedure had been established.

In current inflatable curtain airbag development process, the curtain airbag performance is developed sequentially for the airbag coverage, FMVSS 226, FMVSS 214 and NCAP. Because the FMVSS 226 for the ejection mitigation and the NCAP side impact test require the opposite characteristics in terms of the dynamic stiffness of the inflatable curtain airbag, the sequential development process cannot avoid the iteration for dynamic stiffness optimization. Airbag internal pressure characteristics are can be used to evaluate the airbag performance in early stage of the development process, but they cannot predict dynamic energy absorption capability. In order to meet the opposite requirements for both FMVSS 226 and NCAP side impact test, a test and CAE simulation method for the inflatable curtain airbag was developed.