Airbag deployment sound mechanism

It is well known that airbag deployment is accompanied by an acoustic impulse. There are debates about what is the primary source of this acoustic impulse. The current study, through experiments and complex fluid-structure interaction simulations, identifies the primary source of this noise and reveals this sound generation process in detail. The study shows the acoustic impulse created by this airbag deployment is not overly nonlinear. Therefore, one can clearly identify the sound waves created by individual events happening in sequence in the deployment process. It was found that the inflating flow inside the bag plays more of a role of an energy source than a role of a direct source of the sound the occupant receives. The expanding bag generates the major component of the deployment sound experienced by the occupant. Here the major component of the airbag deployment sound is what is traditionally called “overpressure” in many early studies.