Abstract: Numerical simulation technology is an important tool to reduce cost and time for safety airbag
development. Three prevalent principal methods, i.e. the Control Volume Method (CV), the Arbitrary Lagrangian
Eulerian Method (ALE), and the Corpuscular Method (CPM), were compared for the application and the
characteristics of airbag. The deployment process, the temperatures, and the pressures were simulated using
mathematic theories and finite element model for a developing vehicle with a folded driver side airbag. The
simulation results of these methods show that the CV method is more suitable for airbag simulation under in
position (IP) condition, while the ALE method and the CPM method are perfect for analyzing the flow field and
its effects on passengers of airbag deployment under out of position (OOP) condition when taking into account
flow effect at the initial stages of airbag deployment. These results will provide references for the selection
simulation method and actual design for airbag deployment.

Key words: automobile engineering, passive safety, safety airbag deployment, numerical simulation method, control volume method (CV), arbitrary Lagrange-Eulermethod (ALE), corpuscular method (CPM)