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With the increasing number of air bags being used in vehicles there has been a corresponding increase in the number of occupants injured or even killed due to air bag deployment, particularly under out-of-position conditions. Current publications addressing the dangers of air bag deployment has led to worldwide public uncertainty on the safe use of these passive restraint components. A main goal of the air bag module development must be to balance the out-of-position risks with the overall occupant protection performance to reach the highest biomechanical quality. Further considerations must be given to the development and production costs, quality and styling of the air bag module and steering wheel. Design, function, cost and styling have competing impact during the product development phase. Economic and efficiency factors require new production and manufacturing of systems that use pre-assembled components as assembly groups, such as the so called “high level assemblies.”

The objective of this work was to create mathematical models of the BioSID side impact test dummy, for use in side impact simulation studies. Two dummy models were created - a multibody model, and a finite element model. The models have been validated according to the procedures described in the BioSID User's Manual[1]. The responses of both models were within the required corridors for most of the specified calibration tests, and during these test conditions the behaviour of the models correlated well with physical dummies. The models are now being tested in numerical side impact models of the vehicle. Each dummy model is particularly suited to different tasks: The multibody model is used in a lumped-mass model of the vehicle side structure, for studying the door padding and door intrusion characteristics.