The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Re: Activation of front airbags from hard side impacts

Wilt Nelson ([email protected])
Sun, 15 Nov 1998 19:27:54 -0500 (EST)

The air bag is triggered by sensors which are designed to be equally sensitive in an arc of 30� left and right of straight ahead. Typical threshold values are 13 mph to 15 mph. The sensors can still "feel" impacts within a 90� sector beyond the 30� arc, but the same impact would be lower. The threshold is still 13 to 15 mph in the longitudinal direction, and can be determined as a trigonmetric function of the angle between 30� and 120�. So theoretically at least if the impact were severe enough the sensor threshold could be reached in a rear impact (120�).
It should not be a surprise to have a train (infinite mass) @ 50 mph and 90� deploy the system.
Wilt
Wilt Nelson
[email protected]

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