Abstract：Base on the energy conservation principle and thermal dynamics equations, an analytical model of soft landing considering the elasticity of airbag fabric was presented and validated by LS-DYNA. Then this model was used to investigate the deceleration characteristics of a horizontal cylinder airbag. A series of simulations were conducted to find out the influence of fabric elasticity, initial inflation pressure and venting orifice area on cushioning properties. Numerical results show that the maximum deceleration of payload in-creases with the decrease of fabric elasticity module. Especially, when the elasticity module is lower than 0.2Gpa, the influence of fabric elasticity on cushioning properties will become more obvious. The initial infla-tion pressure also is a key parameter to affect the cushioning properties, and maximum deceleration decreases with the increase of initial inflation pressure, but at the same time the ending velocity of the payload will have a tiny increase. During the design of soft landing airbag, the size of venting orifice of airbag need to optimal determine. If the venting orifice area is too small, the airbag will rebound because the impact energy can not be released in time. But if the venting orifice is too large, the ending velocity of the payload will exceed the limi-tation because impact energy is not enough transferred to airbag attenuation system.
2010, Vol. 29 
