Motions of a Constrained Spherical Pendulum in an Arbitrarily Moving Reference Frame: The Automobile Seatbelt Inertial Sensor

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Allan, A. Peter | Townsend, Miles A.

Affiliations: Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22901

Abstract: A common automatic seatbelt inertial sensor design, comprised of a constrained spherical pendulum, is modeled to study its motions and possible unintentional release during vehicle emergency maneuvers. The kinematics are derived for the system with the most general inputs: arbitrary pivot motions. The influence of forces due to gravity and constraint torque functions is developed. The equations of motion are then derived using Kane's method. The equations of motion are used in a numerical simulation with both actual and hypothetical automobile crash data.

DOI: 10.3233/SAV-1995-2304

Journal: Shock and Vibration, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 227-236, 1995