The automotive safety company Autoliv has unveiled a patented new passenger airbag module based on ‘Bernoulli's Principle’ that can inflate larger airbags more efficiently and reduce development time and cost.
A press release from Autoliv noted that the Bernoulli Airbag will be commercialised during the third quarter of this year and is based on Swiss mathematician and physicist Daniel Bernoulli's fundamental principles of fluid dynamics that explain many phenomena such as how airplanes fly. Bernoulli's principle states that an increase in the speed of a fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in static pressure. Using this principle, the company leverages pressure differences to add a significant contribution of surrounding air to the inflation of an airbag.
For the Bernoulli Airbag, the inflator will receive the signal that a crash has begun, and it will propel high-pressure gases at supersonic speed through multiple inlet tubes. As the gases flow through the tubes, they will suck the surrounding ambient air into the chamber with the gases, creating aspiration, and will inflate a much larger airbag with an even smaller inflator than required today.
Jordi Lombarte, Chief Technical Officer, Autoliv, noted that the Bernoulli Airbag generates less heat, is lighter, and can reduce customer development testing in the United States by more than 30%. “Low risk deployment requirements can be met with a single stage inflator,' he added.
Also Read