Experimental Measurements of Deploying Pressure Distribution on a Passenger-Side Air-Bag Door 950339

Measurements of deploying pressure distribution on the inner surface of a passenger-side air-bag door is important for design and development of inflatable restraint systems. The door is designed to open along its tear seam under the internal bag pressurization. The magnitude of the pressure is a function of inflator output, volume of a reaction can, bag folding patterns, door structures, and environmental conditions (such as temperatures). Current studies utilize modified miniature load cells to quantify the contact pressure between the air bag fabric and inner surface of the module door. These loads were measured during deployments of passenger-side air-bag modules. The results have demonstrated that the modified load cell can be used to measure the deploying pressure on a passenger-side air-bag door. The peak pressure measured prior to the initial tear-seam opening could be as high as 2MPa for a specific door design. The deploying pressure distribution as a function of time can be used as a loading condition for the finite element analysis to calculate the deformation and stresses of the door structure.