ationofthesensor,thefollowingsimplificationscanbemade.Thetwospringscanbefullyrestrainedattheirbasesimplyingaperfectlyrigidplastichousing.Thisisagoodassumptionwhencomparingtheflexibilityofthethinspringstothestiffplastichousing.Theballcanberepresentedbyarigidsurfacesinceittooisverystiffascomparedtothesprings.Ratherthanmodelingthecontactbetweentheplastichousingandtheball,allrotationsandtranslationsaruntiltheforcedisplacementrequirementsweremet.Usingfiniteelementanalysis,thenumberofprototypesbuiltandtestedcanbesignificantlyreduced,ideallytoone,whichsubstantiallyreducesthetimerequiredtodesignasensor.Theanalysisprocedurediscussedinthispaperhasdemonstratedtheabilitytoeliminatemonthsofprototypingeffort.MSC/ABAQUS[]hasbeenusedtoanalyzeanddesignairbagcrashsensors.Theanalysiswasgeometricallynonlinearduetothelargedeflectionsofthespringsandthecontactbetweentheballandsprings.Variouscontactele