This bachelor’s thesis was performed as a concept development project at Autoliv Sverige AB, an automotive safety company located in Vårgårda, Sweden.

US vehicle safety standards require countermeasures to prevent a vehicle occupant from ejection through side windows during a rollover crash. Autoliv is currently using a three-row inflatable curtain to fulfil these requirements but wish to evaluate possibilities for a different type of countermeasure for side windows in a vehicle’s cargo area. Main evaluation parameters were cost, weight, size, and ejection mitigation performance.

To reach the purpose of the project, concept generation, evaluation and simulation has been performed prior to building a prototype. The prototype was built to test a function principle and not to be considered as a final concept. It was tested in a horizontal impactor to provide further evaluation data.

By generating concepts, conducting simulations, construct a prototype and perform an impact test, an evaluation and comparison between new and old concepts can be performed. The impactor tests indicated that the identified function principle can provide performance necessary to prevent ejection.

Conclusions was made that even if the physical prototype did not surpass the limits regarding cost, weight or size, the function has great opportunities for refinement, unless any existing patents would hinder further development. It performs best and show great potential in small windows and gives a minor increase in ejection mitigation performance in larger windows. Weight saving can be achieved if a refined prototype can be implemented