Design and Analysis of Impact Attenuator for a Formula Student Car: A Study between Singular and Bi-tubular Tubes of Varying Geometries

Abstract

The viability of thin-walled energy absorbers as impact attenuators for Formula Student car was examined in this study, specifically the crashworthiness of singular and bi-tubular tubes of varying geometries. 12 designs were lumped into 4 groups, consisting of 3 singular tubes and 9 bi-tubular tubes of varying shapes and dimensions, and they were axially crush-simulated in LS-DYNA. The tubes were set to 50mm long and made of aluminium 6061-T6. The LS-DYNA settings were validated using published experimental data of similar studies. The singular tubes were found to have the highest values of specific energy absorption (SEA), with the singular hexagonal tube design recording the highest value of SEA compared to the other designs. It was also observed that square-shaped geometries were the best in absorbing energy, especially a bi-tubular tube with outer and inner square geometries.