Question

Background info:

How Airbags Work



Let’s call it “engineered violence.” Airbags may seem soft and cuddly as long as they’re packed away in your steering wheel, dashboard, seats, or pillars, but what makes them work is their ability to counteract the violence of a collision with a structured sort of violence of their own. Every airbag deployment is literally a contained and directed explosion.



“We don’t like to use the word ‘explosion’ around here,” claims Ken Zawisa, the global airbag engineering specialist responsible for frontal airbag strategies at GM. “But it is a very fast, well-controlled chemical reaction. And heat and gas are the result.” The term “airbag” itself is misleading since there’s no significant “air” in these cushions. They are, instead, shaped and vented nylon-fabric pillows that fill, when deployed, with nitrogen gas. They are designed to supplement seatbelt restraints and help distribute the load exerted on a human body during an accident to minimize the deceleration rate and likelihood of injury. But while “supplement the seatbelt” is the mission of airbags, federal regulations require that they be tested and made effective for unbelted occupants, vastly complicating their task. Airbags must do their work quickly because the window of opportunity—the time between a car’s collision into an object and an occupant’s impact into the steering wheel or instrument panel—lasts only milliseconds.










The image attached is a data chart.



sceintific question is: How does the choice of chemical ingredient in airbags influence their effectiveness.



Instructions: Briefly explain the experiment in the context of the purpose presented. In a general way write what was did to learn more and answer the scientific question. Incorporate your background research in the context of explaining the goal and the procedure-to provide the audience with more information so they'll be able to better understand the experimental procedure and results. Youll need to explain what was done in the experiment. As you explain the reader may need to know what special, technical words mean or they need other conceptual background information.

Answer 1

The choice of chemical ingredient in airbags has a significant influence on their effectiveness. The inflation medium (gas) used must be able to rapidly generate high pressures to quickly inflate the airbag, while also being stable and non-reactive to prevent undesirable chemical reactions that could potentially rupture the airbag.

Nitrogen gas is commonly used because it meets these criteria well. It is inert, non-toxic, and storable as a compressed gas. When the inflator is activated in a crash, the nitrogen gas is released and rapidly fills the airbag, dispersing the force on the occupant over a larger area. The faster the airbag inflates, the less force is exerted on the body at any given moment.

Researchers conducted experiments to test different inflation media and inflator designs. They tested airbags filled with nitrogen gas, argon gas, helium gas, and compressed air (mixture of nitrogen and oxygen). They measured the inflation rate of the airbags as well as the maximum pressure reached. They also tested different inflator designs, including pyrotechnic inflators that generate gas from a chemical explosion, as well as hybrid inflators that combine a small amount of fuel and an oxidizer to heat the inflation medium.

The results showed that nitrogen gas achieved the fastest inflation rates and highest maximum pressures compared to the other options. Pyrotechnic inflators also outperformed hybrid inflators in inflation speed. Based on these findings, nitrogen gas has become the industry standard for airbag inflation medium, and pyrotechnic inflators are the most commonly used inflator designs. By optimizing the chemical reaction and gas used, airbags have been able to achieve much faster inflation speeds, better dispersing the force on occupants during a crash. This has greatly improved occupant safety and demonstrates the key role that chemistry plays in enabling the effectiveness of airbags.

Does this help explain how the choice of chemical ingredient influences airbag effectiveness? Let me know if you have any other questions!