Numerical and experimental dynamic analysis for a CFRP formula SAE impact attenuator

In the last decade crashworthiness has become a fundamental aspect that influence heavily the design of racing cars of all categories. The regulations have become increasingly stringent and restrictive over time, providing new structures of energy absorption as indispensable and necessary parts for all the high performance cars. The design of these structures is further complicated with the advent of composite materials which, while having excellent absorption capacity, exhibit a behavior fully orthotropic and for this very difficult to study and predict. The present paper is dealing with the lightweight design and the crashworthiness analysis of a composite nose cone as the Formula SAE racing car front impact attenuator .