Dynamic PIV analysis of High-Speed Flow from Vent Holes of Fill-Hose in Curtain type Airbag

Dynamic PIV 기법을 이용한 커튼에어백 Vent Hole 고속유동 해석

Passenger safety is fundamental factor in automobile. Among much equipment for passenger safety, the air bag system is the most fundamental and effective device. Beside of the front air bag system which installed on most of all automobiles, a curtain-type air bag is increasingly adapted in deluxe cars fur protecting passengers from the danger of side clash. Curtain type airbag system consists of inflator housing, fill hose, curtain airbag. Inflator housing is a main part of the curtain-type air bag system for supplying high-pressure gases to deploy the air bag-curtain. Fill hose is a passageway to carry the gases from inflator housing to each part of curtain airbag. Therefore, it is very important to design the vent holes of fill hose for good performance of airbag deployment. But, the flow information from vent holes of fill hose is very limited. In this study, we measured instantaneous velocity fields of a high-speed flow ejecting from the vent holes of fill hose using a dynamic PIV system. From the velocity Held data measured at a high frame-rate, we evaluated the variation of the mass flow rate with time. From the instantaneous velocity fields of flow ejecting from the vent holes in the initial stage, we can see a flow pattern of wavy motion and fluctuation. The flow ejecting from the vent holes was found to have very high velocity fluctuations and the maximum velocity was about 480m/s at 4-vent hole region. From the mass flow rate with time, the accumulated flow of 4-vent hole has occupied about 70% of total flow rate.