Abstract
Nowadays the airbag is the most important and effective restraint system available to prevent accident injuries on the market. But in some cases its activation produces some facial, ocular and audition injuries, and also intoxication effects. The objective of this project was to develop an evaluation tool capable of predicting injuries to the face.
Facial, ocular and auditory injuries occur under velocities that vary in the limits of activation/no activation set by each manufacturer (4V < 48 km/h). In fact most of these injuries occur in frontal impacts where the interaction between driver and airbag is the greatest. Additional to this, shorter occupants (<1.60 m) used to have the most severe injuries due to their position during driving (proximity to the airbag). From those mentioned, the most common injuries are facial, ocular and skin abrasion. The noise produced by an activating airbag is generally over the safe limit for a person, and can cause permanent damage to the internal ear. The explosion is generated by the chemical reaction of gases that may produce intoxication or skin injury.
First task of this project is the evaluation of the injury map related to airbag activation in frontal impact, although other configurations are considered. Also, a revision on the state of the art and the direct relation with possible facial, ocular and audition injuries and intoxication will be performed. The next task is to develop a set of testing procedures for the evaluation of the established injuries that airbag deployment causes to the occupants. To finalize, an assessment of the developed tools and protocols will be made.
With the three elements defined, an overall evaluation on the severity of the airbag system to be assessed can be generated, allowing manufacturers and designers to create more effective yet non-injurious systems. The project activities focus on the development of a measuring system designed to predict facial and ocular injuries resulting from blunt impacts during contact with the airbag, estimating the risk of suffering facial bone fractures or severe ocular injury.
This is accomplished through a special mask that measures the applied pressure on specific points of the head, such as nose tip, eyes, eyebrows, jaw, etc. To estimate the risk of audition injury, a particularly designed dummy head makes use of special microphones to measure the sound and pressure levels found in the cabin during airbag activation. This head can be used both in static and dynamic tests. For the intoxication and skin abrasion injuries, a protocol and a tool to measure the amount of toxic gases released from the explosion of the airbag is developed. In this particular case, the most relevant toxic gases were selected and the adequate instrumentation established for the development of the test.
Keywords: Airbag; Restraint System; Collateral consequences (Facial, ocular and audition injuries, and also intoxication effects) Topic E1