Airbags have already shown their effectiveness to prevent or reduce injuries—during impacts. This applies to driver and passenger airbags as well as to side airbags. Nevertheless there can be negative influences on the occupant such as Out of Position or other cases of inflation induced injuries. in a few cases thermal effects during airbag deployment to the skin have been reported.^1,2

The purpose of this investigation is to present some tests about airbag/skin interactions due to thermal effects during side airbag deployment. For such an investigation, different airbag modules were used to compare the heat loading to the skin depending on bag and inflator characteristics.

After installing and testing of a test setup to deploy modules with a defined position of the venting, PMTO's were exposed to the modules to see the interaction of the gas with the skin.

The examination of the skin was made by the University of Heidelberg.