On Influence of Delayed Adaptation of Inflatable Structure for Evacuation of People at Heights

Abstract

Our study presents the research on elaboration of a novel type of the rescue air cushion, which is an inflatable structure used by fire brigades for evacuation of people at heights. The goal of our work is to increase its injury prevention capabilities. We consider the system based on an airframe filled with a compressed gas and a double-chamber airbag, which exchanges the air with environment. Discussed research includes modelling of the system, numerical simulations of its dynamic behavior and description of the dedicated adaptive solution. Practical implementations of the original ideas are conducted using the rescue cushion in 1:2 scale and a full-scale demonstrator of semi-passive valves. According to the already obtained results it is experimentally proven that a significant improvement of the system's characteristics can be achieved by introducing valves of simple construction [1]. In this study the influence of a delayed start of the adaptation procedure is investigated in detail. Obtained conclusions are used in order to indicate directions of further system development, which will concern, among others, estimation of the impacting body trajectory and identification of the impact position.