airbags.html

Air Bags contact

Speed Front Bags
Speed Side Bags
Few Studies on Side Air Bags as of this Article.

Injuries
Air Bag Deployment Injuries PDF
Air Bags Light Vehicles
University of Virginia
Revised
Harborview Injuries Overview
Health Science Article Air Bags

Slight burns on the wrist's are common
for driver SRS bag deployment.
SRS= Suplemental Restraint System

How to minimize airbag injuries (From ICBC)
Give the airbag plenty of room to inflate.
• Always wear your lap and shoulder belt system.
Airbags are not a replacement for seatbelts.
• Don’t place your arms across the steering wheel.
• Tilt the steering wheel downward toward your chest,
not your head or neck.
• Move your driver and the front passenger seat as far
rearward as practicable.
• Allow at least 25 cm (10”) between the chest and
airbag unit.
• Tell your front seat passengers not to put their feet or
any objects on the dashboard.
• Never install a rear-facing infant restraint in a front
passenger seat that has an active airbag.
• Restrain children 12 years and younger in the back seat.
Airbags are infl atable devices that deploy in a fraction of a second after a
serious crash.
They provide additional protection during a severe crash, when the head and
chest of a buckled-up occupant can move forward and strike the steering wheel
or dashboard.
airbags

Recalled Bags

Safety Distance

Bibliography

Front Air Bags expand at a rate of 160 to 240 Mph.
Your airbags deploys at around 200 miles per hour because it only takes around 20 milliseconds for an airbag to inflate completely.
Airbags have to inflate that quickly for a very specific reason. If you collide with a wall or another vehicle at 30 mph it takes a bit over
23 milliseconds / .023 seconds for you to move through the space between your seat and the steering wheel if you aren’t wearing a seatbelt.

Alternate Studies:
The measured gases were found to be within the recommended guidelines for human exposures, but no guidelines exist for particle exposures of this magnitude (150-220 mg/m3) but short duration. High-speed films were also taken of the deployments to obtain an estimate of the fabric speed as it leaves the module. The maximum average speed for both types of airbag was approximately 100 mph and in both cases average speeds ranged from lows near 50 mph to highs of over 200 mph.

This all happens in an instant, usually within 25 or 50 milliseconds. That translates to almost 200 miles per hour. The airbag then will deflate itself on its own once it deploys.

Side Air Bags supposedly deploy at up to 3 times faster.

The inflation system is not unlike a solid rocket booster (see How Rocket Engines Work for details).
The airbag system ignites a solid propellant, which burns extremely rapidly to create a
large volume of gas to inflate the bag. The bag then literally bursts from its storage site at up to 200 mph (322 kph) --
faster than the blink of an eye! A second later, the gas quickly dissipates through tiny holes in the bag,
thus deflating the bag so you can move.

Even though the whole process happens in only one-twenty-fifth of a second,
the additional time is enough to help prevent serious injury.
The powdery substance released from the airbag, by the way, is regular cornstarch
or talcum powder, which is used by the airbag manufacturers to keep the bags pliable and lubricated while they're in storage.

Safety Distance:
Researchers have determined that the risk zone for driver airbags is the first 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) of inflation. So, placing yourself 10 inches (25 cm) from your driver airbag gives you a clear margin of safety.

Forces:

NHTSA Study
NHTSA advanced Studies
Advanced Study Air Bags Female Dummy Study
This study concludes that a driver can experience from ~40 to 60 G's of force.
An astronaut experiences ~3 g's at lift off.
A dragster driver experiences around ~5.5 g's.

200kpa=
29.008 pounds-force per square inch

175 kilopascals =
25.382 pounds-force per square inch

Sound Pressure:
https://www.ei1.com/2015/05/26/can-airbags-cause-hearing-loss/
A driver’s side front airbag can generate about 160 decibels (dB) peak sound pressure level (SPL).
A passenger side front airbag can generate about 168 dB SPL
Peak while dual airbag deployment can generate 170 dB SPL Peak.
Side airbags have been measured as high as 178 dB SPL Peak and are more
likely to directly impact the ear facing the bag. These noise levels are comparable to firing a .
357 Magnum pistol within inches of the ear. One such exposure can cause permanent hearing loss.

Bibliography:
How things work Airbags
NHTSA advanced Studies