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Airbags

Discussion in 'Other Off Topic Forum' started by Meister, Jan 23, 2004.

  1. Meister

    Meister F1 Veteran
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    Apr 27, 2001
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    #1 Meister, Jan 23, 2004
    I was talking with my wife last night about airbags. She's and RN and and has gone to some classes on airbag injuries. She was told in this class that an airbag can activate based soley on "rate of deceleration".... No impact, just a crictical rate at which the car slows down.
    I have always believed that an "impact" of some sort was required for the bags to deploy. That sensors in the car felt the impact and set off the deployment.
    My point was that if rate of decleration (alone) was now one of the technolgies in airbags deployment that you 'd have bags going off all the time in car tests, the track, at that last minute stop sign you just saw...
    Anyway, I know that there are a lot of new technologies out there... seat belts that sense declaration, etc. I was just wondering if anyone knew anything more about this subject?
     

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  2. Schatten

    Schatten F1 World Champ
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    Apr 3, 2001
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    #2 Schatten, Jan 23, 2004
    I cannot say from factual evidence, but I'll say that is not true. It would be difficult, but not impossible, for the ECU to say "we're going 55, now we're going 5mph, all in a short timespan of a few moments, so we gotta deploy the airbags". That doesn't sound right at all. There are actual sensors placed on the car which detect an impact to a certain degree. Some lighter impacts, such as parking lot fender benders, don't always set them off. But rarely, they can.

    The other reason I don't buy it is because a lot of people, like myself, track their air-bagged modern car. With that in mind, I'm running a track porterfield R compound along with Toyo RA1's which are stickier than a street tire. With these two items, I'm able to stop quicker than a factory car, yet nothing happens. So the rate of decelleration wouldn't come into play here. But hitting something, that is another term for rate of deceleration by means of Newton's law coming into play.
     
  3. Meister

    Meister F1 Veteran
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    #3 Meister, Jan 23, 2004
    That was my thinking as well, about tracking a car. The information she got from the class didn't make sense to me, but with all the new technolgy out there I guess it just peaked my interest.
    I would also think that airbag deployment based soley on "rate of decel"...without an impact would bring up some liability issues for the car maker. If you're at the track (or anywhere else for that matter) and in complete control of your car and your airbag goes off simply because of deceleration and you get injured... that wouldn't be good for the automaker would it?
     
  4. lionsfan54

    lionsfan54 Karting

    Nov 7, 2003
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    #4 lionsfan54, Jan 23, 2004
    a typical airbag trigger is a tube with a metal ball in it. The ball is just big enough that it won't roll forward unless there is a lot of force applied (hitting a concrete wall for example). When the ball does move forward, it completes the circuit, triggering the charge that inflates the airbag.

    In a sense it's correct, severe deceleration will trigger an airbag. But I'm talking 60-0 in 2 feet, not 90.
     
  5. racedecknc

    racedecknc Karting

    Nov 24, 2003
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    Ed
    #5 racedecknc, Jan 23, 2004
    airbags use decelerometers, not crush sensing sensors, but the G-load has to be much higher than you could achieve with brakes and good tires.

    Ed
     

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