Design and testing of the frontal impact attenuator for a Formula SAE vehicle

According to FSAE rules ([1]), the frontal impact attenuator, when mounted on the front of a vehicle with a total mass of 300kg that is run into a solid, non-yielding impact barrier with a velocity of impact of 7.0 m/s, has to give an average deceleration of the vehicle not to exceed 20 g. Thus, FSAE teams have to design and test, either experimentally or numerically, their frontal impact attenuator and submit an "Impact Attenuator Calculations" form. Several different frontal impact attenuator solutions were numerically tested and the best one in terms of deceleration, compactness and weight was experimentally tested using a very simple catapult thus allowing to validate the numerical models