Citation

Wheatley G, Zaeimi M. Int. J. Crashworthiness 2022; 27(2): 466-475.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13588265.2020.1807699

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper outlines the design, analysis and physical testing of the material for the front impact attenuator for the Motorsports car. The material selected was a 20 mm thick panel of veiled polypropylene honeycomb. The design programme Solidworks was used to produce three impact attenuator geometries for analysis - a solid block, a three-tier pyramid and a four-tier pyramid. The impact attenuator was simplified to solid blocks specified with the honeycomb material strengths and tested in ANSYS 14.0. The simulations did indicate that the four-tier pyramid had the greatest energy absorption behaviours. Two full size prototypes were manufactured and destructively tested. The force-displacement curve determined that prototype MKII achieved total energy absorption of 7591 J. The average deceleration was 17.66 g and maximum deceleration was 30.58 g. The polypropylene honeycomb energy absorption and deceleration values comply with FSAE requirements.

Language: en

Keywords

energy absorption; experimental testing; finite element analysis; formula SAE; Impact attenuator