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In an attempt to make vehicle restraint systems more effective in protecting occupants, many advanced safety technologies have been introduced. These advanced technologies are mostly adaptive technologies. The ability of a restraint system to adapt itself to crash parameters like crash speed and type, occupant size, and belt-usage status, offers possible enhancements in occupant protection. Designing a restraint system boils down to the determination of the design variables of either the restraint technologies or vehicle interiors. A restraint system of adaptive technologies involves much more design variables than a restraint system containing only load-limited belts and dual stage inflators, possibly posing a challenge to safety engineers. In this paper, a genetic algorithm (GA) tailored for restraint system optimization will be presented.

In an attempt to make vehicle restraint systems more effective in protecting occupants, many advanced safety technologies have been introduced. These advanced technologies are mostly adaptive technologies. The ability of a restraint system to adapt itself to crash parameters like crash speed and type, occupant size, and belt-usage status, offers possible enhancements in occupant protection. Designing a restraint system boils down to the determination of the design variables of either the restraint technologies or vehicle interiors. A restraint system of adaptive technologies involves much more design variables than a restraint system containing only load-limited belts and dual stage inflators, possibly posing a challenge to safety engineers. In the language of Artificial Intelligence, an expert system is a type of application program that makes decisions or solves problems in a particular field by using knowledge and analytical rules defined by experts in the field [1].

This paper describes the development and validation of a finite element model of the SID-IIs beta+-prototype dummy using a nonlinear explicit finite element code. The geometry of the SID-IIs dummy is modeled with shell and solid elements from digital scans. The material properties are derived from dynamic tests and the model validation is conducted on component, subassembly and full assembly levels. Component level validation of the head/neck, arm, ribs, and lumbar spine is presented. The model validation of the thorax and pelvis subassemblies as well as pendulum calibration tests (shoulder, thorax, abdomen, and pelvis) and rigid-wall sled tests of the fully assembled dummy mode is also presented. The model response compares favorably with experimental data and provides a reasonable level of confidence in the model biofidelity.

A complete finite element model of the BioSID side impact dummy was created using the finite element code RADIOSS. The objective of this work was to develop an accurate and stable dummy model, which can capture the dummy behavior due to a localized impact or in a full-scale side impact finite element model with reasonable CPU time. This warranted the development of a detailed dummy model which reflects the BioSID geometrically and has material characteristics similar to the physical dummy. This paper describes the stages of the model development and discusses the issues which influence the accuracy of the dummy model predictions. It also shows comparisons of the dummy model responses and kinematics with a series of sled test data and calibration tests specified in the BioSID User's Manual.

Increasing demand to equip vehicles with airbags in relatively short time is straining restraint engineering resources of OEMs and suppliers. To meet this demand, the time to develop the airbag systems should be minimized, without any compromise to their occupant protection performance. Among the various components that go into an airbag, the design and development of the gas generator is the most time consuming. Usage of one gas generator in a group of cars will cut down on the module development time. Therefore, the possibility of differentiating the inflators based on the severity of crash pulse was investigated. The usefulness of computer simulation software to obtain a good starting system was also evaluated. This paper outlines the procedure followed in identifying the optimum passenger side inflatable restraint system for a group of vehicles. The simulation and sled test matrices used towards this end are discussed and the results compared.