Available options include:

OPTION1 applies to the MPP implementation only.

OPTION2 also applies to the MPP implementation only. When the DECOMPOSITON option is
present, LS-DYNA will automatically insert *CONTROL_MPP_DECOMPOSITION_BAGREF
and CONTROL_MPP_DECOMPOSITION_ARRANGE_PARTS keywords if they are not
already present in the input.

OPTION3 provides a means to specify an airbag ID number and a heading for the airbag.

OPTION4:

(see Remark 10)

(see Remark 17)

Purpose: To define an airbag using the particle method. This method is also sometimes referred
to as CPM (Corpuscular Particle Method)

This model requires that surface normal vectors be oriented inward,

unlike the traditional CV (Control Volume, also known as Uniform
Pressure, or UP) method for which they must point outward. To check
bag and chamber integrity in the CPM model see the CPMERR option
on the *CONTROL_CPM card.

This card is included if and only if the MPP keyword option is used.

This card is included if and only if the ID or TITLE keyword options are used.

This card is required.

 This card is required.

When the card after Card 2 begins with a “+” character, the input reader processes it as
this card; otherwise this card is skipped.

When Card 3 is included and the card after Card 3 begins with a “+” character, the
input reader processes it as this card; otherwise this card is skipped.

This card is included if UNIT = 3. See Card 2.

This card is required.

This card is included when STYPE2 = 2. Define SID2 cards, one for each internal part
or part set.

Additional Cards for NPDATA > 0 (see Card 1). Define NPDATA cards, one for each
heat convection part or part set.

Define NVENT of this card (see Card 2).

This card is included when IAIR ≠ 0. See Card 5.

This card is included if and only if the MOLEFRACTION keyword option is used.

Included NGAS of this card. See Card 5.

 Include NORIF of this card. See Card 5.

Additional card for MPP keyword option.

SX, SY, SZ Scale factor for each direction used during the MPP decomposition. For
instance, increasing SX from 1 to 10 will give increase the probability
that the model is divided along the -direction.

Additional card for ID or TITLE keyword options.

BAGID Airbag ID. This must be a unique number. The BAGID is referenced
in, for example, *INITIAL_AIRBAG_PARTICLE_POSITION.

HEADING Airbag descriptor. It is suggested that unique descriptions be used.

 SID1 Part or part set ID defining the complete airbag.

STYPE1 Set type:

part
part set

SID2 Part or part set ID defining the internal parts of the airbag.

STYPE2 Set type:

part
part set
number of parts to read (Not recommended for general use)

BLOCK Blocking. Block must be set to a two-digit number

BLOCK = M × 10 + N,
The 10’s digit controls the treatment of particles that escape due to
deleted elements (particles are always tracked and marked).
active particle method which causes particles to be put back
into the bag.
particles are leaked through vents. See Remark 3.
The 1’s digit controls the treatment of leakage.
always consider porosity leakage without considering
blockage due to contact.
check if airbag node is in contact or not. If yes, 1/4 (quad)
or 1/3 (tri) of the segment surface will not have porosity
leakage due to contact.
same as 1 but no blockage for external vents
same as 1 but no blockage for internal vents
 same as 1 but no blockage for all vents.

NPDATA Number of parts or part sets data.

FRIC Friction factor if -1.0 < FRIC ≤ 1.0. Otherwise,

is the curve ID which defines as a function of the
part pressure.
FRIC is the *DEFINE_FUNCTION ID that defines . See
Remark 2.

IRPD Dynamic scaling of particle radius.

off
on

NP Number of particles. (Default = 200,000).

UNIT Unit system:

kg-mm-ms-K
SI
tonne-mm-s-K
user defined units (see Remark 11)

VISFLG Visible particles. This field affects only the CPM database. See Remark
5.
default to 1
output particle's coordinates, velocities, mass, radius, spin
energy, translational energy
 output reduce data set with coordinates only
suppress CPM database

TATM Atmospheric temperature. (Default = 293 K).

PATM Atmospheric pressure. (Default = 1 atm).

NVENT Number of vent hole parts or part sets

TEND Time when all (NP) particles have entered bag. (Default = 1010). See
Remark 14.

TSW Time at which algorithm switches to control volumes. (Default = 1010).

When the card after Card 2 begins with a “+” character the input
reader processes it as this card, otherwise this card is skipped.

TSTOP Time at which front tracking switches from IAIR = 4 to IAIR = 2. See
Card 5.

TSMTH To avoid sudden jumps in the pressure signal during switching, the front
tracking is tapered during a transition period. The default time of 1.0
millisecond will be applied if this value is set to zero.

OCCUP Particles occupy OCCUP percent of the airbag’s volume. The default
value of OCCUP is 10%. This field can be used to balance
computational cost and signal quality. OCCUP ranges from 0.001 to
0.1.
 REBL If the option is ON, all energy stored from damping will be evenly
distributed as vibrational energy to all particles. This improves the
pressure calculation in certain applications.
off (Default)
on

SIDSV Part set ID for internal shell part. The volume occupied by this part is
excluded from the bag volume. These internal parts must be
consistently orientated for the excluded volume to be correctly
calculated.

PSID1 Part set ID for external parts which have normals pointed outward. This
option is usually used with an airbag integrity check when there are two
CPM bags connected with bag interaction. Therefore, one of the bags
can have the correct shell orientation but the shared parts for the second
bag will have wrong orientation. This option will automatically flip the
parts defined in this set in the second bag during integrity checking.

TSPLIT Start time to activate particle splitting algorithm. See Remark 15.

SFFDC Scale factor for the force decay constant. SFFDC has a range of
[0.01,100.0]. The default value is 1.0. The value given here will
replaced the values from *CONTROL_CPM.

Optional Control Cards. When Card 3 is included and the card after Card 3 begins with a “+”
character, the input reader processes it as this card; otherwise this card is skipped.

SFIAIR4 Scale factor for the ratio of initial air particles to inflator gas particles for
IAIR = 4. Smaller values weaken the effect of gas front tracking.
 IDFRIC Direction of P2F impact force:
no change (default)
the force is applied in the segment normal direction.

Additional card when UNIT = 3.

MASS, TIME, Conversion factor from current unit to MKS unit. For example, if the
LENGTH current unit is using kg-mm-ms, the input should be 1.0, 0.001, 0.001

IAIR Initial gas inside bag considered:

no
yes, using control volume method.
yes, using control volume method. In this case ambient air
enters the bag when PATM is greater than bag pressure.
yes, using the particle method.
yes, using the particle method. Initial air particles are used
for the gas front tracking algorithm, but they do not apply
 forces when they collide with a segment. Instead, a uniform
pressure is applied to the airbag based on the ratio of air and
inflator particles. In this case NPRLX must be negative so
that forces are not applied by the initial air.

NGAS Number of gas components

NORIF Number of orifices

NID1 - NID3 Three nodes defining a moving coordinate system for the direction of
flow through the gas inlet nozzles (Default = fixed system)

CHM Chamber ID used in *DEFINE_CPM_CHAMBER. See Remark 7.

CD_EXT Drag coefficient of the external air. If the value is not zero, the inertial
effect from external air will be considered and forces will be applied in
the normal direction on the exterior airbag surface.
drag coefficient
curve ID for time dependent drag coefficient
Note: To model drag, ambient air properties must be defined via IAIR.

Additional Cards for STYPE2 = 2. Define SID2 cards, one for each
internal part or part set.

SIDUP Part or part set ID defining the internal parts that pressure will be applied
to. This internal structure acts as a valve to control the external vent
hole area. Pressure will be applied only after switch to UP (uniform
pressure) using TSW.

STYUP Set type:

part
part set
 PFRAC Fraction of pressure to be applied to the set (0.0 to 1.0). If
PFRAC = 0.0, no pressure is applied to internal parts.

LINKING Part ID of an internal part that is coupled to the external vent definition.
The minimum area of this part or the vent hole will be used for actual
venting area.

Additional Cards for NPDATA > 0. Define NPDATA

cards, one for each heat convection part or part set.

SIDH Part or part set ID defining part data.

STYPEH Set type:

part
part set
2: part and HCONV is the *DEFINE_CPM_NPDATA ID
3: part set and HCONV is the *DEFINE_CPM_NPDATA ID

HCONV Convective heat transfer coefficient used to calculate heat loss from the
airbag external surface to ambient. See *AIRBAG_HYBRID
developments (Resp. P.O. Marklund).
|HCONV| is a load curve ID defines heat convection coefficient
as a function of time.
When STYPEH is greater than 1, HCONV is an integer of
*DEFINE_CPM_NPDATA ID.
PFRIC Friction factor if -1.0 < PFRIC ≤ 1.0. Defaults to FRIC from Card 1
if undefined. Otherwise,
is the curve ID which defines as a function of
the part pressure.
PFRIC is the *DEFINE_FUNCTION ID that defines .
See Remark 2.

SDFBLK Scaling down factor for blockage factor (Default = 1.0, no scaling
down). The valid factor will be (0.0,1.0]. If 0.0, it will set to 1.0.

KP Thermal conductivity of the part. See Remark 9.

INIP Place initial air particles on surface.

yes (default)
no
This feature excludes surfaces from initial particle placement. This
option is useful for preventing particles from being trapped between
adjacent fabric layers.
CP Specific heat (see Remark 16).

Additional Cards for NVENT > 0. Define NVENT cards, one for vent hole.

SID3 Part or part set ID defining vent holes.

STYPE3 Set type:

part
part set which each part being treated separately
part set and all parts are treated as one vent. See Remark 13.
 C23 vent hole coefficient, a parameter of Wang-Nefske leakage. A
value between 0.0 and 1.0 can be input. See Remark 1.
ID for *DEFINE_CPM_VENT. Some extended options can
only be defined through *DEFINE_CPM_VENT. Please
check this keyword for more information.

LCTC23 Load curve defining vent hole coefficient as a function of time.

LCTC23 can be defined through *DEFINE_CURVE_FUNCTION. If
omitted, a curve equal to 1.0 used. See Remark 1.

LCPC23 Load curve defining vent hole coefficient as a function of pressure. If

omitted a curve equal to 1.0 is used. See Remark 1.

ENH_V Enhanced venting option. See Remark 8.

off (default)
on
two way flow for internal vent; treated as hole for external vent
(see Remark 8)

PPOP Pressure difference between interior and ambient pressure (PATM) to

open the vent holes. Once the vents are open, they will stay open.

Additional Card for IAIR ≠ 0.

PAIR Initial pressure inside bag.

TAIR Initial temperature inside bag.

 XMAIR Molar mass of gas initially inside bag.
-XMAIR references the ID of a *DEFINE_CPM_GAS_
PROPERTIES keyword that defines the gas thermodynamic
properties. Note that AAIR, BAIR, and CAIR are ignored.

AAIR - CAIR Constant, linear, and quadratic heat capacity parameters.

NPAIR Number of particle for air. See Remark 6.

NPRLX Number of cycles to reach thermal equilibrium. See Remark 6.

if more than 50% of the collision to fabric is from initial air
particles, the contact force will not apply to the fabric segment
in order to keep its original shape.
If the number contains “.”, “e” or “E”, NPRLX will treated as an end
time rather than as a cycle count.

When the keyword option INFLATION is used, NPRLX is also the

number of cycles for maintaining the initial pressure given by PAIR.

Additional card for the MOLEFRACTION option.

LCMASS Total mass flow rate curve for the MOLEFRACTION option.
 NGAS additional cards, one for each gas (card format for ith gas).

LCMi Mass flow rate curve for gas component i, unless the MOLEFRACTION
option is used. If the MOLEFRACTION option is used, then it is the
time dependent molar fraction of the total flow for gas component i.

LCTi Temperature load curve/DEFINE_FUNCTION for gas component i

XMi Molar mass of gas component i

the absolute value of XMi references the ID of a *DEFINE_
CPM_GAS_PROPERTIES keyword that defines the gas
thermodynamic properties. Note that Ai, Bi, and Ci are ignored.

Ai - Ci Constant, linear, and quadratic heat capacity parameters for gas

component i

INFGi Inflator ID for this gas component (defaults to 1). The user inflator
routine can only be defined using *DEFINE_CPM_GAS_
PROPERTIES. Please check this extra card for the interface I/O.

NORIF additional cards, one for each orifice (card format for ith orifice).

↓ 30°

NIDi Node ID/Shell ID defining the location of nozzle i. See Remark 12.
 ANi area of nozzle i (default: all nozzles are assigned the same
area).
load curve ID. Time dependent area of nozzle i.

VDi vector ID. Initial direction of gas inflow at nozzle 𝑖.

values in the NIDi fields are interpreted as shell IDs. See
Remark 12.
direction of gas inflow is using shell normal
direction of gas inflow is in reversed shell normal

CAi Cone angle in degrees (defaults to 30°). This option is used only when
IANG is equal to 1.

INFOi Inflator ID for this orifice. (default = 1)

IMOM Inflator reaction force (R5.1.1 release and later).

off
on

IANG Activation for cone angle to use for friction calibration (not normally
used; eliminates thermal energy of particles from inflator).
off (default)
on

CHM_ID Chamber ID where the inflator node resides. Chambers are defined
using the *DEFINE_CPM_CHAMBER keyword.

The value must be between 0.0 and 1.0.

Total vent hole coefficient = min(max(C23 × LCTC23 × LCPC23, 0.0), 1.0)
Friction factor to simulate the surface roughness. If the surface
is frictionless the particle incoming angle 𝛼1 is equal to the deflection angle 𝛼2 (see
Figure below).
 Particle Deflection

The surface roughness 𝐹r and the total angle 𝛼 will have the following relationships:
0.0 ≤ 𝐹r ≤ 1.0
𝛼 = 𝛼1 + 𝛼2
For the special case when
𝐹r = 1.0 ,
the incoming particle will bounce back from its incoming direction, so
𝛼 = 0.0 .
For −1.0 < 𝐹𝑟 < 0.0, particles will bounce towards the surface by the following
relationship
𝜋 𝛼1
𝛼 = 2 [𝛼1 − 𝐹𝑟 ( − )] .
4 2
If 𝐹𝑟 ≤ −1.0, the absolute value is the curve ID which defines the 𝐹𝑟 as a function of
the part pressure.
If 𝐹𝑟 > 1.0, the value is the *DEFINE_FUNCTION ID. Currently, the code will pass
the following 3 values in this function: airbag pressure, airbag volume, and current
time. The function will return the value of 𝐹𝑟 . A simple example of user provide
function with ID 900 is shown below.
*DEFINE_FUNCTION
900
float pfric100(float pressure_bag, float volume_bag, float current_t)
/* function using bag volume to set Fr */
{
float x=0., vol1=0.5, vol2=1.1, vol3=1.2;
if(volume_bag>=0 && volume_bag<vol1 ) {
x=1.2;
} elseif (volume_bag>=vol1 && volume_bag<vol2 ) {
x=1;
} elseif (volume_bag>=vol2 && volume_bag<vol3) {
x=1-(volume_bag-vol2)/vol3;
} elseif (volume_bag>=vol3 ) {
x=0.;
}
 return -0.06*x;
}

Setting the 10’s digit to 1 allows for physical holes in

an airbag. In this case, particles that are far away from the airbag are disabled. In most
cases, these are particles that have escaped through unclosed surfaces due to physical
holes, failed elements, etc. This reduces the bucket sort search distance.
The change in energy due to convection is given by
d𝐸
= 𝐴 × HCONV × (𝑇bag − 𝑇atm ) ,
d𝑡
where
𝐴 = is part area.
HCONV = user defined heat convection coefficient.
𝑇bag = the weighted average temperature impacting particles.
𝑇atm = aambient temperature.
Particle time history data is always output to the database. LS-
PrePost 2.3 and later can display and fringe this data. To reduce runtime memory
requirements, VISFLG should be set to 0 (disabled). For LS-DYNA 971 R6.1 and later,
VISFLG only affects Version 4 CPM output (see *DATABASE_CPM).
Total number of
particles initialized is NP + NPAIR. Since the initial air particles are placed at the
surface of the airbag segments with correct velocity distribution initially, particles are
not randomly distributed in space. It requires a finite number of relaxation cycles,
NPRLX, to allow particles to move and produce better spatial distribution.
Since the momentum and energy transfer between particles are based on perfect elastic
collisions, the CPM solver would like to keep a similar mole per particle between the
inflator and initial air particles. The CPM solver will check the following factor:
mole per particle of initial air
factor = |1 − | .
mole per particle of inflator gas
If the factor is more than 10% apart, the code will issue the warning message with the
tag, (SOL+1232), and provide the suggested NPAIR value. The NPAIR value should
be adjusted based on the application. For example, this message should be ignored if
for certain impact analyses the simulation is setup with only initial air, that is, no
inflator gas.
By default, initial air particles
will be evenly placed on airbag segments which cannot sense the local volume. This
will create an incorrect pressure field if the bag has several distinct pockets. *DEFINE_
CPM_CHAMBER allows the user to initialize air particles by volume ratios of regions
of the airbag. The particles will be distributed proportional to the defined chamber
volume to achieve better pressure distribution.
 When enhanced venting is on, the vent hole’s equivalent radius
𝑅eq will be calculated. Particles within 𝑅eq on the high pressure side of the vent hole
geometry center will be moved toward the hole. This will increase the collision
frequency near the vent for particles to detect small structural features and produce
better flow through the vent hole.
When ENH_V equals 1, particles flow from high to low pressure only. When EHN_V
equals 2, particles can flow in both directions for internal vent.
Particles encountering external vents are released. The ambient pressure is not taken
into account, and the particle will be released regardless of the value of the pressure in
the bag/chamber. Therefore, the vent rate will be sensitive to the vent location.
If the thermal conductivity,
KP, is given, then the effective convection heat transfer coefficient is given by
1.0 shell thickness −1
𝐻eff =( + ) ,
HCONV KP
where the part thickness comes from the SECTION database. If KP is not given, 𝐻eff
defaults to HCONV.
Without the MOLEFRACTION option, a flow rate is
specified for each species on the LCMi fields of Card 11. With the MOLEFRACTION
option the total mass flow rate is specified in the LCMASS field on Card 10 and the
molar fractions are specified in the LCMi fields of Card 11.
If UNIT = 3 is used, there is no default value for TATM and
PATM, and proper values must be provided. Unit conversion factors must also be
provided so that the code sets the correct universal gas constant as well as some other
variables.
Node ID and shell ID based nozzle should not be used in the
same airbag definition. The nozzle location is taken to be at the center of the shell and
the initial nozzle direction can be defined by the shell’s normal or by its reversed
normal. This vector transforms with the moving coordinate system defined by NID1 -
NID3. The nozzle area is set on the ANi fields and shell area is not taken into account;
therefore, the mass flowrate distribution with shells is determined in the same way as it
is with nozzles defined by nodes.
When STYPE3 = 2, the first part in the set is designated
as the master. All remaining parts are merged into the master so that enhanced venting
is treated correctly. ABSTAT_CPM output will be associated with the master part. This
option has the same effect as manually merging elements into the master part.
If TEND is not defined, particle mass and release rate will be calculated using
the whole of the mass-flow curves LCMi, regardless of termination time. TEND can be
used to limit the curve data but must be equal to or greater than the analysis termination
time.
Particles that exit by porosity leakage or a vent are removed from the system.
If TSPLIT is set, the code keeps track of the number of removed particles (A) and
active particles (B) every 200 cycles after time TSPLIT. Once A is greater than B, each
active particle will be split into A/B + 1 particles for a better particle density in the
volume.
If the specific heat of the structure part is given, the initial temperature of this part
has the initial air temperature, and the part mass (M) is automatically calculated. Heat
transfer between gas and structure is based on the convection equation. The time
history of the part temperature is stored in the database under the field of
part_temp
𝐸 = AREA × 𝐻eff × (𝑇gas − 𝑇part (𝑡 − 1))

𝑇part (𝑡) = 𝑇part (𝑡 − 1) + 𝐸/(𝑀 × CP)

The pressure in the closed volume may gradually

deviate from the initial value due to volume changes caused by the pressure difference,
such as during the process of tire inflation. INFLATION is designed to maintain this
initial pressure by adding mass to the initial gas in the closed volume during the
NPRLX time steps.