Study on Simulation Method to Determine the Inflation Threshold of Head Protective Airbag for High-speed Helicopter Pilot

Abstract Compared with ordinary helicopters, the flying speed of high-speed helicopters is increased from 350km / h to 450km / h, and the crash speed is bound to exceed 12.8m / s, which greatly increases the probability of collision injury of the pilots’ head. The equipment, such as the traditional safety belts and crashworthy seats, cannot play an effective role in protection. In order to effectively improve the crashworthy survival rate of high-speed helicopter pilots, the main method in European and American countries is to design additional head protective airbags. The paper carried out the study on the simulation method for determining the high-speed helicopter head protection airbag inflation threshold value. Based on LS-DYNA, it has established the impact simulation model of the high-speed helicopter cockpit – seat – safety belt – pilot system. At the same time, the HIC value of the dummy head (no more than 1000N) and the pull force of the shoulder strap (no more than 8890N) are taken as the objective function to simulate the collision process of the man/seat system in multiple states of the high-speed helicopter. Finally, the inflation threshold of the head protective airbag is determined, which provides a critical support for the development of the head protective airbag.