Design and Analysis of the Human Airbag
Lu Chen, Dong Mao, and Qiang Gao (B)
School of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215131, China
gaoqiang@suda.edu.cn
Abstract. Because of the body function decline and the decreased reaction sensitivity, the old people’s falling accidents happen from time to time. Falling will
cause physical injury and negative psychological behavior. It had an extremely
adverse effect on the life of the old people and brought burden to family and
society. In this paper, the femur model of human body was established by finite
element method and the dynamic response of femur when human falling was analyzed. The protective airbag was designed according to the relevant size of human
body, and the protective effect of air bag in falls was investigated. The results of
finite element analysis showed that the stress of femur and the stress concentration
is markedly decreased, the maximum impact force was reduced by 94% and the
rate of impact force decreases when the femur was protected by the airbag, which
proved the feasibility of the designed airbag.
Keywords: Fall protection · Human airbag · Finite element method
1 Introduction
According to a survey by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2018, 646,000 people
die from falling every year in the world, among which the proportion of people over 65
years old is the largest [1]. Falling will not only cause physical injury (such as fracture,
paralysis, etc.) and negative psychological behavior of fear of falling to the elderly [2],
but also causes serious social and economic problems. The research on fall protection
device has become a hot topic.
Scholars have conducted a large number of studies on the human body’s dynamic
response during the fall [3–5], but there are little studies on design and verification on
the protection effect of the fall protective airbag [6]. In this paper, a protective airbag was
designed and a three-dimensional finite element model of human femur was established.
The finite element method was used to analyze the influence of air bag on the dynamic
response of the femur when the human body falls sideways.
2 Human Airbag Design
Hip fracture is one of the most serious injuries caused by human falls, and the mortality
rate of the elderly increases by 5 to 8 times within 3 months after the occurrence [7].
The airbag’s size should cover the entire hip. Among the hip bone injuries caused by
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. N. Atluri and I. Vušanovi´ c (Eds.): ICCES 2020, MMS 97, pp. 133–138, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64690-5_13
Lu Chen, Dong Mao, and Qiang Gao (B)
School of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou 215131, China
gaoqiang@suda.edu.cn
Abstract. Because of the body function decline and the decreased reaction sensitivity, the old people’s falling accidents happen from time to time. Falling will
cause physical injury and negative psychological behavior. It had an extremely
adverse effect on the life of the old people and brought burden to family and
society. In this paper, the femur model of human body was established by finite
element method and the dynamic response of femur when human falling was analyzed. The protective airbag was designed according to the relevant size of human
body, and the protective effect of air bag in falls was investigated. The results of
finite element analysis showed that the stress of femur and the stress concentration
is markedly decreased, the maximum impact force was reduced by 94% and the
rate of impact force decreases when the femur was protected by the airbag, which
proved the feasibility of the designed airbag.
Keywords: Fall protection · Human airbag · Finite element method
1 Introduction
According to a survey by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2018, 646,000 people
die from falling every year in the world, among which the proportion of people over 65
years old is the largest [1]. Falling will not only cause physical injury (such as fracture,
paralysis, etc.) and negative psychological behavior of fear of falling to the elderly [2],
but also causes serious social and economic problems. The research on fall protection
device has become a hot topic.
Scholars have conducted a large number of studies on the human body’s dynamic
response during the fall [3–5], but there are little studies on design and verification on
the protection effect of the fall protective airbag [6]. In this paper, a protective airbag was
designed and a three-dimensional finite element model of human femur was established.
The finite element method was used to analyze the influence of air bag on the dynamic
response of the femur when the human body falls sideways.
2 Human Airbag Design
Hip fracture is one of the most serious injuries caused by human falls, and the mortality
rate of the elderly increases by 5 to 8 times within 3 months after the occurrence [7].
The airbag’s size should cover the entire hip. Among the hip bone injuries caused by
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. N. Atluri and I. Vušanovi´ c (Eds.): ICCES 2020, MMS 97, pp. 133–138, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64690-5_13