An approach based on the shock tube experiment is proposed to evaluate the permeability of airbag fabrics Shock tube experiments are conducted to imitate airbag inflation by fixing the airbag fabric sample near the end of open driven section When a plane shock wave impinges the airbag fabric, it will be reflected Meanwhile, an increased pressure formed at the front face of the airbag fabric will lead to a flow through the fabric due to the permeable structure of airbag fabrics The air permeability of airbag fabrics is thus determined by measuring the velocity of reflected shock wave It is found that at relatively high pressure the dynamic permeability resulted from shock tube experiment is lower than the static ones resulted from the conventional permeability testing method This phenomenon is supposed relevant to the different influences on the airbag fabric structure of steady pressurizing happened in static experiments and instantaneous pressurizing happened in shock tube experiments