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Formula SAE® is one of several student design competitions organized by SAE International. In the Formula SAE events undergraduate and graduate students are required to conceive, design, fabricate and compete with a small, formula-style, race car. Formula SAE safety rules dictate a 7 m/s (or approximately 15.65 mph) frontal crash test for nose-mounted impact attenuators. These rules are outlined in section B3.21 of the Formula SAE rule book. Development and testing methods of these energy-absorbing devices have varied widely among teams. This paper uses real-world crash sled results to research methods for predicting the performance of aluminum honeycomb impact attenuators that will comply with the Formula SAE standards. However, the resulting models used to predict attenuator performance may also have a variety of useful applications outside of Formula SAE. In this paper, various energy absorbers were mounted to a free rolling trolley sitting on top of a crash sled.

The objective of this study was to determine risk of injury to the driver during a frontal impact in a Formula SAE vehicle. Formula SAE is a collegiate student design competition where every year universities worldwide build and compete with open-wheel formula-style race cars. Formula SAE 2006 rules stipulate the use of an impact attenuator to absorb energy in the event of a frontal impact. These rules mandated an average deceleration not to exceed 20-g from a speed of 7.0 m/s (23 ft/s), but do not specify a specific time or pulse shape of the deceleration. The pulse shapes tested in this study included an early high-g, constant-g, and late high-g pulse. The tests were performed using the deceleration sled at the Kettering University Crash Safety Center. Using industry standard practices, this study examined the driver's risk of injury with regard to neck and femur loads, head and chest accelerations, as well as kinematic analysis using high speed video.