Design and Simulation of a Formula SAE Impact Attenuator

Author(s): Piyush Arora and Gopalan Venkatachalam

Source: SAE International Journal of Materials and Manufacturing , 2022, Vol. 15, No. 3
(2022), pp. 275-300
Published by: SAE International

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 ARTICLE INFO
Article ID: 05-15-03-0018
© 2022 SAE International
doi:10.4271/05-15-03-0018

Design and Simulation of a Formula

SAE Impact Attenuator
Piyush Arora 1 and Gopalan Venkatachalam 2
VIT University, India
1

VIT University, School of Mechanical Engineering, India

2

History
Abstract Received: 03 Jul 2021
The preeminent obligation of the automotive engineers, while designing a car, is to assure the driver’s Revised: 15 Mar 2022
well-being during any kind of impact by suppressing intrusions into the cockpit or minacious decel- Accepted: 21 Mar 2022
eration levels. Technologists and designers are advancing various modern active and passive safety e-Available: 07 Apr 2022
systems to augment vehicle occupants’ safety. To mitigate the research and development expenditure
in time and money, it is recommended to utilize computational crash simulations for the early evalu- Keywords
ation of safety behavior under vehicle impact tests. Therefore, in this research study, an attempt is Closed-cell aluminum foam,
made to simulate crashworthiness and design the impact attenuator utilized in Formula SAE (FSAE) LS-DYNA, Impact attenuator
vehicles to absorb the kinetic energy of a car during a frontal collision. Closed-cell aluminum foam (IA), Crash analysis, Relative
is selected as its material because of its less density than solid metals and ability to undergo large density
deformations at almost constant load. CAE software is used to carry out explicit dynamic impact
analysis on 12 distinct samples having four different geometries and three relative density combina- Citation
tions to get the best design with maximum energy absorption incoherence to the norms and boundary Arora, P. and
conditions provided in the FSAE rulebook. It is noticed that the shape of the geometry plays a Venkatachalam, G., “Design
significant role in determining the results of the impact. Furthermore, 15% relative density worked and Simulation of a Formula
the best for this application out of the other potential combinations. To conclude the research study, SAE Impact Attenuator,”
3 out of the total 12 potential IA designs are finalized, resting on the level of kinetic energy absorp- SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf.
15(3):275-300, 2022,
tion and deceleration provided by them by taking into consideration the mass of all the designs.
doi:10.4271/05-15-03-0018.

ISSN: 1946-3979
e-ISSN: 1946-3987

275

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276 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022

Introduction of the vehicle. One such FSAE rule is “the automobile must have
two steel roll hoops of a particular thickness and alloy.” In

M
ost of the car crashes occur due to human error addition to this, there must be an IA in the nose. Furthermore,
where approximately 1.35 million people die each the car must have a full-five-point racing harness, hydraulic brake
year as a result of a road traffic accident and hence circuits, and must follow the geometric templates for the driver’s
automobile safety standards become the need of an hour. The position in the cockpit.
two critical issues faced by the automobile industry worldwide The car body is an essential part of safety when the vehicle
are related to emissions and safety standards. The automobiles, meets an accident. The most crucial requirements for car
manufactured in any country, need to follow country-wise safety are that the front and back absorb the major part of
specified standards as well as automotive industry standards. deformation energy. IA or crash cushion or crash attenuator
The different aspects, to be taken care of are regarding the is an essential device when safety is concerned. It is a passive
environment, safety, and lightning equipment. Some of the safety device that results in reduced damage to the driver [and
major concerns regarding the environment are emissions passenger(s), in case of the commercial vehicle] when an
norms, fuel consumption, exhaust gases, and exhaust pipe accident occurs. The IA aims to absorb the kinetic energy of
location. Rules for the lightning equipment are concerned the vehicle collided with and bring it to a stationary position
with signaling devices, direction indicators, stop lights, the safely. By safely regulating the energy, it can help prevent some
position of sensors, headlamp height, use of red or white light, serious injuries. A good IA can absorb the impact of accidents
parking light, and the like. On the other hand, the safety sector on cars. These days, mostly crushable materials are used for
has two subtypes, namely active and passive safety. Active IAs. Some of them work on the principle of friction, by forcing
safety is the one with the motto, “Prevention is better than a steel cable through an angled slot or tube and thus converting
cure” as they help in the prevention of road accidents. Some kinetic energy to heat energy. Many different designs have
of the active safety systems, used in the contemporary era, are been used in FSAE competitions so far. For example, The
anti-lock braking systems (ABS), electronic stability control Western FSAE car used a rectangular prism made of aluminum
(ESC), adaptive cruise control (ACC), blind spot detection honeycomb, whereas the team at San Joe State University used
(BSD), and so on. On the contrary, passive safety is the one a steel truncated pyramid for their crash protection. Oxford
that comes into action once the crash occurred. Passive safety Brookes University made one from balsa wood. Figure 1
alleviates the intensity of damage to the commuter, which displays the CAD model of an impact-attenuator mounted on
includes types of equipment such as airbags, seatbelts, IAs, the chassis of an FSAE vehicle through an anti-intrusion plate.
and the like. Nowadays, Global New Car Assessment Kumar et al. [1] analyzed the potential of aluminum alloy
Programme (G-NCAP) has become an encouraging factor for sheet metal IA in terms of energy absorption. Furthermore,
the commercial vehicles that demand developing new active the authors differentiate the responses acquired from the
and passive safety systems. computational analysis and the one from the actual drop test
The purpose of Formula SAE (FSAE) rules is to ensure the conducted in the laboratory. The results were in good agree-
safety of the car and to inculcate problem-solving skills in the ment with each other. However, aluminum sheet metal is not
students. The majority of the rules are concerned with the safety known as an energy-absorbing material and of course, it

FIGURE 1 Impact Attenuator CAD (in blue color).

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 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022 277

would be much more bulkier than the market available high weight. Although there is an IA on the front side of the
Impaxx-700 (non-metallic foam) IA. To resolve the above- bulkhead during a collision, the deceleration is higher during
mentioned problem, Singhal et al. [2], with their innovative the first milliseconds of the crash. Rising et al. [10] scrutinized
idea, developed an IA design by incorporating plastic bottles the risk of injury to the driver amid the frontal impact of the
and cans inside the aluminum sheet to augment the energy Formula SAE vehicle and conducted a repeated experimental
absorption and it was also proved to be cost-effective. test with and without the HANS device and concluded that it
Furthermore, they introduced an aluminum sheet with holes plays a major role during an accident.
near the suspected crumple area to maximize the plastic Based on the abovementioned findings, it is concluded
deformation. Although Fahland et al. [3] utilized honeycomb that there is still a requirement of the potential material for
foam structure for their IA, which is a good energy-absorbing the application of the impact attenuator, which ensures higher
material, they did not perform the computational analysis, energy absorption during an impact and as light as possible
which proves to be too expensive as they fabricated various in weight. One of the potential materials for this purpose is
prototypes and compared them to find the optimal design. closed-cell aluminum foam.
Instead, they could have utilized computational analysis to Closed-cell aluminum foam exhibits elastic-plastic-type
design a much more effective IA of honeycomb to save behavior under transverse compressive loads, which were
resources. On the contrary, Belingardi et al. [4] performed all showcased by Wang and Zhou [11]. Furthermore, they detailed
the procedures initiating from the computational analysis and the compressive behavior of the foam and then conducted
ending with the prototype impact testing. However, they compressive and indentation tests and concluded tearing and
utilized steel and aluminum alloy as their material for the IA, foam collapsing to be the failure criterion for the material.
which is not a suitable material for this application from the They also exclaimed that the foam’s potential to be an energy
vehicle’s weight point of view. Boria [5] utilized a sandwich absorbent device rests on its stress-strain curve. Rajak et al.
panel and aluminum sheet combo to develop an IA. [12] and Mahadev et al. [13] reviewed the different manufac-
Additionally, he optimized the number of sheets and attenu- turing processes of the closed-cell aluminum foam and
ator length to increase the energy absorption level upon compared among them the most effective way of manufac-
impact as well as abated the overall weight of the IA. turing it. The authors concluded that melt route and powder
He concluded that the practical crash behavior holds a reason- metallurgy are the widely accepted processes among all. They
able agreement with the predicted behavior from the FE simu- further discussed the advantages and shortcomings of the two
lation. Parth et al. [6] used carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer processes, which could be helpful to understand the most
composite as the material for the IA. Furthermore, they optimal way to fabricate it. Additionally, they discussed the
emphasized the advanced manufacturing techniques for their potential of the foam in the upcoming future. Larner et al.
customized IA, which could directly manipulate their testing [14] compared the experimental and simulation results for the
results, and at last adopted vacuum bagging to achieve more aluminum foam and utilized Voro++ and MATLAB software
perfection in the design. Physical testing was conducted and to construct the morphology of the structure of the metallic
simulation (explicit dynamics analysis) using Abaqus software foam. However, the process, they used to make the morphology
was performed. In the end, a comparison was made between is too complex and various techniques are discussed in the
their results with the standard IA. Coppola et al. [7] attempted latter part of this article. The motive of their investigation was
to resolve the major problem of maintaining the high perfor- to know whether the relative density and the mechanical char-
mance (more deformation of IA upon impact) as well as acteristics of the foam hold any relation between them. Gibson
reducing the overall weight by designing an innovative impact [15] stated different types of open and closed-cell aluminum
attenuator, made up of honeycomb sandwich panels using foams microstructure. Furthermore, he explained the
different aluminum alloys. However, the simulation and mechanical properties of the metallic foam using an analytical
experimental results were way off due to the chosen boundary approach. Nonetheless, this approach reflects way-off results
conditions in the numerical analysis. Pang et al. [8] investi- when compared to the experiments and hence the character-
gated the dynamic response of an IA during the crash test istics found from this basis should not be utilized in the
utilizing aluminum sheet metal of 3 mm thickness to fabricate numerical analysis. Czekanski et al. [16] attempted to develop
their IA. Nevertheless, some discrepancies were noticed in multi-unit cell to model the response of metallic foams when
both the results, which might be due to a lack of material subjected to oblique loading. The authors utilized ellipsoids
information. Rooppakhun et al. [9] analyzed IA design by interconnected through a truncated pyramid to form a unit
varying the thin walls of aluminum metal and evaluated the cell. In the end, they compared the numerical simulation with
effect of the same as per the Formula SAE regulations to the crush test experiment to recognize the potential of their
optimize its weight using sheet metal. They concluded that developed morphology. Their results were similar to the
the energy absorption value was high for the multiple sections experiments and hence this technique could be used to design
when compared to the simple one. Furthermore, they proved the impact attenuator. Taherkhani et al. [17] compared the
that the more the wall thickness, the more will be the trans- deformation behavior of closed-cell foam experimentally and
formation of kinetic energy to internal energy. This would numerically. The authors tried to categorize unit cells into two
eventually increase its weight and in turn, conclude that this groups including solid and cellular parts resting on the
is not a potential material for the application because of its location where impact is to be observed. This could drastically

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278 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022

reduce the simulation run time and hence could be combined scope of this material for such an application as the metallic
with the previous reference findings to get results faster. Hasan foam is already lightweight and good energy absorbent.
[18] developed a new model termed the weaker-cruciform- Therefore, an attempt is made in this research study to utilize
stronger-hemisphere model that can predict the structural CCAL as the material for IA and design the same by following
characteristics of the metallic foams with much better all the norms of the FSAE rulebook. The solution seems to
accuracy compared to the existing conventional models. be iterative because the optimal design should be the outcome
Furthermore, the developed model was able to accommodate and hence, it is decided to select a combination of determining
all the deformation patterns of closed-cell aluminum foam factors such as relative densities and geometry of the impact
and compared it with the experiment values. He also concluded attenuator to cover a wide range of designs and conduct
that the Gibson-Ashby analytical model overpredicts the explicit dynamics impact analysis on these samples to achieve
mechanical characteristics of the foam. Filice et al. [19] worked the optimal IA design. The optimal design, here, is defined as
to develop a 3D CAD methodology of a porous billet made of the design that deforms plastically when the frontal impact
metallic foam considering the mass distribution along the occurs and simultaneously it absorbs a major part of the total
radial direction of the billet. They also verified the developed energy to drastically reduce the kinetic energy of the car.
model by comparing the experimental results with the compu- Furthermore, it should not pass on the high deceleration
tational analysis. Nevertheless, this model could not be used values inside the cockpit as it could also cause a fatality of
if the deformation is high, which limits its potential. Vignesh the driver.
et al. [20] prepared closed-cell aluminum foams with 0.16 as
its relative density by decomposing TiH2 in molten metal.
They furthermore exclaimed that the energy absorption of
the foam-filled tube is considerably higher than the empty
tube and its energy absorption capacity increases with the
Methodology
strain rates, which could prove to be a very useful property
The objective is to transform the kinetic energy of the vehicle
of this foam material for lightweight impact energy
to the internal energy of the IA. Therefore, following is the
absorption applications.
calculation of the kinetic energy of the car that is to be absorbed
Although computational analysis mitigates much time,
by the IA.
effort, and cost for manufacturing/testing samples, still the
conversion from CAD to the FEA model takes a significant
time. Hence, to tackle this problem, iso-geometric analysis K.E. 
1
 mv 2  ; here m  300 kg;v  7 m / s;
(IGA) comes into play, which increases the efficiency and 2
1
transits the abovementioned problem into a unified process. K.E.   300  7   7350 Joules
2

Nguyen et al. [21] detailed the advantages of the IGA by 2

implementing it to the various one-, two-, and three-dimen-
sional problems for linear elasticity, linear elastic fracture It is cogent from the above calculation that IA must
mechanics, structural mechanics, and Poisson problems. be designed in such a way that it should absorb 7350 Joules of
Furthermore, they attempted to summarize the recent trends kinetic energy.
in the IGA field. The authors specifically emphasized the The outcome of this research study is to acquire the most
NURBS, which has some drawbacks as well which is high- optimized design of an IA. Hence, the work initiates with the
lighted in the work by Nguyen et al. [22]. The authors utilized selection of governing parameters that directly or indirectly
an alternative way to tackle such problems, which even influence the output parameters. In this case, the relative
allowed local refinement. Qian et al. [23] proposed two power density of the foam and the geometry of the IA are considered
system topologies in order to present a novel conceptual as the governing factors and are represented in Table 1.
multidisciplinary weight optimization methodology within A combination of samples is to be set up resting on the
the concept of more electrical aircraft (MEA). Authors governing factors, i.e., three relative densities and four distinct
concluded that by following the proposed weight optimiza- geometries. Explicit dynamic impact analysis is conducted on
tion procedure, a total of 11.9% weight reduction can all the 12 specimens and out of these, one will be selected that
be observed in the aircraft power system. adheres to the requirements of the FSAE rulebook and is the
In the literature, various methodologies have been imple- lightest of all the passed specimens.
mented for an impact attenuator (IA) design in terms of its Once the governing factors are selected, then the material
simulation, fabrication, and experimental testing. The main characteristics of the closed-cell aluminum foam are deter-
aim is to adhere to the rules of the FSAE and by the side mined resting on the distinct relative densities as different
optimize it to be as light as possible to augment the perfor- densities would showcase different structural properties. After
mance of the FSAE car. However, no report is available in the the properties are acquired, then ANSA PRE-PROCESSOR
literature regarding closed-cell aluminum foam (CCAL) as is utilized to implement all the preprocessing tasks, namely
the material for the IA. Additionally, CCAL is known as an solid meshing and boundary conditions setup. Once the solver
impact-absorbing material similar to the polymer foams in a deck is ready to be run for the analysis, it is imported to the
bicycle helmet but for higher impact loads. There is a good LS-DYNA solver to run for the simulation. After

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 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022 279

TABLE 1 Governing factors for the impact attenuator—relative density of the metallic foam and the geometry of the
impact attenuator.
Relative 12% 15% 20%
density
Geometry
of impact
attenuator
© SAE International

Single-truncated (less Cuboid

Double-truncated tapered)
Single-truncated

accomplishing the normal termination of the analysis, the the IA should absorb at least 7350 Joules of energy. Both the
D3plot file is imported into the LS-PREPOST software to abovementioned constraints must be verified at a condition
conduct all the post-processing steps. Post-processing includes when the weight of the vehicle including the driver is 300 kg
getting the deceleration plot and the energy plots of the and the impact velocity of the car is 7 m/s.
vehicle. After this stage is achieved, then all the samples are Since the main motive of this research is to provoke
to be compared based on the FSAE rules, and those samples computational analysis, the in-depth study for the model of the
fulfilling it would be cleared for the next step and the rest will foam structure was crucial. Upon scrutinizing the literatures,
be discarded. All the passed designs would now be compared it was found that the simplest approach for the modeling is to
resting on their weight (the lighter one would be preferred) utilize the solid geometry of the model and while implementing
and the most optimized IA would be selected as the optimal the material properties, the characteristics of the foam is
design. Figure 2 represents the methodology to be followed utilized instead of solid metal structural properties. The second
throughout the study in a flowchart representation. approach is to analyze a repeating unit cell with a cavity in it
and assign it with the metallic characteristics of the solid metal.
However, the latter approach requires high memory and
Material and the Design computational time. Furthermore, while implementing the 3D
meshing, it would fail due to the minimum size error. Therefore,
Model the second technique is discarded at the end and the first
approach is followed. Figure 3(a) and (b) elucidate the unit cell
The finalized material for the IA (closed-cell aluminum foam, structure and its geometry that was initially followed.
in this case) must be able to deform with very high strain such The following material factor that directly influences the
that the rate of deceleration of the vehicle upon frontal impact result of the simulation is the volume fraction of the metallic
should not exceed 20 g average and 40 g peak. Additionally, foam, which is defined as the ratio of the density of the foam

FIGURE 2 Methodology followed to accomplish the investigation.

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280 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022

FIGURE 3 (a) Unit cell with 10% relative density. (b) TABLE 2 Comparison between Gibson-Ashby analytical
Section-view of the foam model. model and experimentation values for 12% relative density of
the closed-cell aluminum foam.
Material Gibson-Ashby Experimental
characteristics model values Deflection (%)
Elastic Young’s 2.925 1.350 116.7
modulus (GPa)

© SAE International
Plastic stress 13.38 4.00 234.5
(MPa)
Densification 0.832 0.72 15.55
strain

3/2
 pl      
 0.3     0.3    Eq. (2)
 ys  S   S 

2
 pl      
 0.23     0.30    Eq. (3)
 ys  S   S 

  
 D  1  1.4    Eq. (4)
 S 
© SAE International

The Equations 1-4 are utilized to acquire all these above-

mentioned foam characteristics. However, upon further inves-
tigation through other works of literature, it is realized that
these analytical models overpredict the values of the proper-
ties. Hence, in the work reported by Hasan [18], he prepared
the specimen of 12%, 15%, and 20% relative density and
  
to that of the solid  . Based on the ease of manufactur- experimentally acquired the engineering stress-strain curve
 S  for all the aforementioned volume fractions. Therefore, it is
ability of the metallic foam, it was concluded that it typically decided to utilize the same stress-strain curve and other prop-
has relative density in the range of 3 to 30%. Therefore, for the erties from the findings [18]. Table 2 compares the results from
convenience to cover the wide range and get a broader outcome the Gibson-Ashby analytical model and the one acquired from
to know its influence on the response, it is decided to select the experiments performed by Hasan [18] for the 12%
three relative density values in the range of 10 to 20%. relative density.
Since, all the abovementioned parameters of the foam are It is cogent from Table 2 that one cannot rely on these
sufficient to make a metallic foam, the next important part is analytical models as they may have a tremendous discrepancy
to acquire the material characteristics for particular volume from the experimental values. Figure 4(a)-(d) displays the
fraction. The best approach is to prepare the specimen of the engineering stress-strain curve of the aluminum foam that is
material and perform an indentation test on it. However, that acquired from the Gibson-Ashby methodology for 12%
process is expensive and time consuming as well. Therefore, relative density and the one acquired from the experiments
one could take help from the various developed analytical performed by Hasan [18] for 12, 15, and 20% relative density,
models that could predict the foam characteristics. The model respectively, that is utilized to carry out the analysis in
that is widely used by the researchers is the one given by this case.
Gibson and Ashby and was taken into consideration to predict
the foam properties for this case.
The following equations are the representation of the
Gibson and Ashby model [15] for the closed-cell Geometry of the Model
aluminum foam.
The geometry of the IA is one of the most important factors
2 since the requirement of having higher strain without failure
E 
 
  
would be significantly inf luenced by the shape of it.
 0.32     0.32    Eq. (1)
ES  S   S  Additionally, the geometry must also obey the shape

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 FIGURE 4 (a) Stress-strain curve rest on Gibson-Ashby methodology for 12% relative density. (b) Stress-strain curve rest on the
experiment for 12% relative density [18]. (c) Stress-strain curve rest on the experiment for 15% relative density [18]. (d) Stress-strain
curve rest on the experiment for 20% relative density [18].

Stress–strain curve by Gibson-Ashby for 12% relative density

Stress (MPa)

Strain (mm/mm)

Stress–strain curve of closed cell aluminium foam for 12% relative density
(b-d) Adapted from Ref. [18]. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License ([Link]
Stress (MPa)

Strain (mm/mm)

Stress–strain curve of closed cell aluminium foam for 15% relative density
Stress (MPa)

Strain (mm/mm)

Stress–strain curve of closed cell aluminium foam for 15% relative density
Stress (MPa)

Strain (mm/mm)

281

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282 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022

constraints specified by the FSAE, according to which its when compared to Impaxx-700 foam. Nevertheless, being a
length must be at least 200 mm along the fore/aft axis of the standard geometry, this design tops the list of final IA shapes.
wireframe chassis with a minimum height of 100 mm, which Figure 5(a) showcases all the dimensions and the views of
is perpendicular to the ground. The minimum width of the the single-truncated IA. The second geometry being the
attenuator parallel to the ground must be 200 mm. double truncated, which might pretend somewhat complex;
Based on the abovementioned verities, it was decided to however, it would be a very effective design for energy
move forward with four potential geometries and point out absorption. The design comprises two different tapers which
the one that gives the best results resting on the simulations. would allow to fully deform the forward taper upon the
The first geometry being the single truncated was selected collision and then it would transfer the impact to the second
as it is the most commonly used by many FSAE teams world- taper for further deformation. Second, this double taper
wide and being a standard size of the IA available in the would allow the deformed metal to penetrate inside the
market. The after-market product is generally made up of undeformed, which would allow it to possess a huge defor-
polymeric foam (Impaxx-700), which would be replaced by mation level in the design and hence more specific energy
closed-cell aluminum foam in this case. This shape is taken absorption. Additionally, this design is more compact in size
into consideration as this geometry would act excellent when than the single-truncated IA and it can be cogent from
it comes to energy absorption. It is possible that this design Figure 5(b), which displays all its views with the
might be heavier for the metallic foam and could act stiff required dimensions.

FIGURE 5 (a) Single-truncated geometry of an impact attenuator. (b) Double-truncated geometry of an impact attenuator. (c)
Single-truncated (less-tapered) geometry of an impact attenuator. (d) Cuboid geometry of an impact attenuator.

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 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022 283

The first two geometries seem bulkier as aluminum foam The following step is to assign material to the component
will be used instead of light polymeric foam. Therefore, for which one needs to hunt for the correct material card as
material or size must be reduced in the remaining two shapes. it is the most governing factor for the whole analysis. For the
Hence, the third shape being the modified version of the current analysis, MAT 53 Closed Cell Foam is utilized for the
standard size in which the taper angle is reduced that would IA. The material card asks for the density, Young’s modulus,
result in a reduced size. Furthermore, the height of this IA is and the load curve (engineering stress-strain curve) of the
also reduced to the minimum design requirement (200 mm). foam material. Table 4 represents all the aforementioned
Additionally, comprising a considerable tapered shape would parameter values utilized to assign the material properties at
also elucidate a good response in terms of energy absorption. different relative densities. To define the material property of
Second, being compact in shape it would act as a soft material the section shell (backing and rigid plate), MAT 20 material
when compared to the first one, which could result in lower card Mat Rigid is utilized. The mechanical properties of steel
deceleration levels. The required dimensions and all the views are used to define its properties. They must be rigid throughout
of the geometry are portrayed in Figure 5(c). The last geometry the analysis therefore this material card suits it.
in the deck is the cuboid and is the most optimized as it is To analyze the real-life situation, boundary conditions
designed exactly according to the minimum design constraint. in the simulation plays a major role. In this research, it is
The benefit of this shape and size is that if the closed-cell attempted to emulate all the realistic constraints as per the
aluminum foam acts stiffer in the previous geometries it Formula SAE specifications, which includes the velocity of
would show higher deceleration levels (higher than the the vehicle of 7 m/s before impact, which is given to the
required level). Hence, this design being the compact of all backing plate with all other degrees of freedom to
would be soft compared to all the above-designed geometries. be constrained. Figure 6(d) elucidates the initial velocity given
Furthermore, if this geometry passes all the realistic to the backing plate. Second, the total weight of the vehicle,
constraints, then this would be the optimal geometry because including the driver, must be 300 kg, which is also given to
of being the smallest and the most lightweight. Additionally, the backing plate by manipulating its density based on its
this design also comprises benefits in terms of angle of sight dimensions (volume). Additionally, to align the movement of
for the driver, which would drastically reduce and would ease the backing plate with the IA and to avoid penetration, the
the drivability. Figure 5(d) displays all the views of the nodes at the backside of the impact attenuator are made
geometry with the mandatory dimensions. constrained to the backing plate component using the
constrained option available in the LS-DYNA solver deck.
Figure 6(e) represents the constrained nodes and the backing
Finite Element Method plate associated with them. Since, the subsystem of the backing
plate and the IA would collide to the rigid wall, all the degrees
Once the CAD model of the IA is prepared along with all the of freedom of the same are constrained.
attachments, which comprise the backing plate denoting the To avoid any kind of penetration among the nodes of the
vehicle and the driver’s weight; and second the rigid plate on body itself or with the other bodies present, the following
which the IA has to strike, the assembly is then imported into types of contacts that are explained in detail are applied to
the ANSA Pre-Processor and the solver deck is selected as the the system.
LS-DYNA to further carry out all the required preprocessing Automatic Surface-to-Surface: These contacts are often
steps in it. Figure 6(a) represents the assembly of the CAD used in problems where the master part is a rigid body and/
model that is to be imported to the preprocessing software. or when the slave surface has a finer mesh than that of the
The work begins with the meshing, which can be bifur- master surface. At each time step of the contact analysis, each
cated into two parts, i.e., 2D meshing for the backing and rigid node on the slave surface is checked for penetration through
plate, and 3D meshing for the IA. For the IA, ortho-tria mesh the master surface and vice versa. Hence, this contact provides
elements are selected for all the four geometries with a a two-way contact treatment to avoid any kind of penetration.
minimum target length of 10 mm, average target length of 15 This type of contact is utilized twice in the analysis where
mm, and maximum target length of 25 mm. The mesh is both the times the IA works as the slave and backing plate as
generated and then if any of the elements fail due to complex the master for one contact and rigid plate for the second
geometry in either minimum or maximum length, the contact. In addition to this, the dynamic and static friction
elements are either pasted into one element using the paste options are also available with contact information. In this
option, or else the size of the elements is changed utilizing the case, the static and dynamic contacts are given the value of
MV free option. All the required mesh parameters are listed 0.2 and 0.15, respectively.
in Table 3. Figure 6(b) portrays the ortho-tria mesh elements Automatic General-Interior Contact: These contacts are
formation. Once the meshing of the IA is done, then the 2D applied to the component to avoid any type of penetration
mesh is generated on the backing and rigid plate using the effect inside the 3D geometry’s nodes. These contacts are
automatic mesh generator. Under the properties section, both responsible to check the same at each time step of the analysis.
the plates are assigned the section shell with a thickness of Here, in this case, this contact is assigned to the IA to avoid
3 mm. Figure 6(c) represents the finalized meshing on the IA the penetration among the interior nodes of the
and its attachments assembly. impact attenuator.

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284 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022

FIGURE 6 (a) Impact attenuator CAD model assembly with the required attachments. (b) 3D ortho-tria mesh elements of
impact attenuator. (c) Meshing of the impact attenuator and its attachments. (d) Initial velocity of 7 m/s given to the backing plate.
(e) Constrained nodes of the impact attenuator nodes and the backing plate.

© SAE International
Automatic Single Surface Contact: These contacts are Here, the time step means that at each stipulated interval, the
generally used to check the potential penetrations between results are extracted. Once, all the aforementioned steps of
any surfaces of the two parts, including self-contacts that may the preprocessing are performed in the ANSA software, then
occur on the same part. This is just an add-on to the afore- the file is saved as the key file (.k extension) as it could
mentioned applied contacts to double-check any kind of be readable to the solver. Then this file is imported to the
penetration if any of the contacts failed during computation. LS-DYNA solver and the analysis starts to run.
This contact is applied to the whole geometry at once. The last process in the FEM is the post-processing that is
The last step of the preprocessing is to set the required done to read all the required outputs. LS-REPOST software
database and controls as it decides the potential output param- is utilized to fetch the output data for the analysis. To read it,
eters. In the Control section, one needs to finalize the accuracy, the D3plot file created in the output folder is imported to the
contact settings, energy, hourglass, time step, and termination. software, where one can run the animation of the crash
For all the analysis, the termination time, i.e., the time at analysis as well as plot the output, i.e., the deceleration plot
which the analysis results should end is set as 0.3 s. On the and the plot for the kinetic, internal, total, and sliding energy.
other hand, database option is utilized to state the prepro- Figure 7 represents the deformation of the crash analysis on
cessor about the output information that is required. So, for the double-truncated geometry with 12% relative density at
the current analysis, D3plot with the time step of 0.01 s, and different time steps to understand the trend of deformation.
glstat and Matsum with the time step of 0.0001 s are selected. Similarly, all the other 11 specimens are analyzed the same

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 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022 285

TABLE 3 3D mesh quality parameters utilized to mesh the TABLE 4 Material characteristics of the foam at different
impact attenuator. relative density.
Mesh elements type Ortho-Tria Relative density of Density of the foam Young’s modulus of

© SAE International
Total 3-D elements for double truncated 14,866 the foam (%) (kg/m3) the foam (MPa)
geometry 12 337.2 1350
© SAE International

Minimum target length (mm) 10 15 421.5 1680

Average target length (mm) 15 20 562 2100
Maximum target length (mm) 25
Solid collapse 0.2

way as the abovementioned sample. The results of which are of the foam and a total of 12 combinations are made rests on
described in detail in the next section. the aforementioned governing factors. The deciding policy
for the optimal IA is the norms provided in Formula SAE
regulations, which are discussed earlier. Out of 12 IA(s), four
of them pass all the required norms given in the FSAE
Results rulebook. Therefore, to get the optimal design, three of the
four passed samples are finally selected resting on the final
The main motive of the study is to design and develop the fabricated weight as the lightest IA would be preferred. Table
optimal design of the Formula SAE IA made of closed-cell 5 portrays all the governing factors of all the 12-IAs and the
aluminum foam. Variations are made in the governing factors ones highlighted in green are the top three performing
namely the geometry of the IA as well as the relative density samples out of all.

FIGURE 7 Plastic deformation observed in double-truncated IA at 12% relative density at different time steps.
© SAE International

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286 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022

TABLE 5 Result of all the impact attenuator samples.

Relative density
Geometry 12% 15% 20%
Single—truncated (standard m = 5.08 kg m = 6.354 kg m = 8.473 kg
size) Dec. = 52.9 g Dec. = 39.87 g Dec. = 47.26 g
Int. ener. = 7260 Joules Int. ener. =7219.5 Joules Int. ener. = 7190.24 Joules
Double—truncated m = 2.95 kg m = 3.68 kg m = 4.92 kg
Dec. = 29.27 g Dec. = 38.12 g Dec. = 51.92 g
Int. ener. = 7342.38 Joules Int. ener. = 7338 Joules Int. ener. = 7335 Joules
Single—truncated (less-tapered) m = 1.91 kg m = 2.38 kg m = 3.18 kg
Dec. = 48.75 g Dec. = 27.52 g Dec. = 39.69 g

© SAE International
Int. ener. = 7340 Joules Int. ener. = 7349 Joules Int. ener. = 7349 Joules
Cuboid m = 1.34 kg m = 1.68 kg m = 2.24 kg
Dec. = 82.03 g Dec. = 31.30 g Dec. = 28.43 g
Int. ener. = 7331 Joules Int. ener. = 7349 Joules Int. ener. = 7349 Joules

Single-Truncated Geometry Single-Truncated (Less-

This geometry is being in the finalized four geometries because Tapered) Geometry
of the standard size of the after-market product. It proves to Since this geometry is a reduced version of the first geometry,
give more stiffer response with the closed-cell aluminum foam all the hopes were on this geometry as the first geometry was
when compared to polymeric foam. The deceleration level was very stiff. The reduction in size would give a soft response in
high as it was more stiffer than required, which ultimately terms of stiffness. However, the 12% relative density response
leads to less deformation and it bounced back without full was so soft that it went its full deformation and still it did not
deformation. Figure 8(a) and (b) displays the deceleration and stop and had a large deceleration level at the end of the plot,
the energies plot for 12% relative density. If the relative density which can be seen in Figure 14(a) and (b). Moving on the
is increased to higher level, it would become more stiff than higher density, which would be more stiff than 12%, passed
the previous case, and that was also observed in the case with all the FSAE specifications, the deceleration level was perfect,
15% and 20% relative density results, which are elucidated in and the energy absorption was also up to the mark. Out of
Figures 9 and 10, respectively. 15% and 20% relative density, 15% was promising as its weight
would be less compared to the latter one. Figures 15 and 16
showcase the deceleration and the energies plot for the 15%
and 20% relative density, respectively.
Double-Truncated Geometry
The overall size of the geometry is reduced when compared
to last geometry. The stiffness response of the 12% relative Cuboid Geometry
density with this geometry was soft, which eventually leads This geometry is the smallest and simplest off all others. 12%
to reduced drastic deceleration level as last geometry, relative density proves to be too soft for this geometry as it
making it a good design specification. Furthermore, the results in a huge deformation level and after that high decel-
plastic deformation is also increased that opened the way eration is encountered at the end of deformation. Additionally,
to absorb more energy than previous geometry. However, it does not pass all the specified values and hence is discarded.
the design could not surpass the desired specification Figure 17(a) and (b)represents the deceleration and the
(internal energy). Figure 11(a) and (b) showcases the decel- energies plot associated with it. The 15% relative density design
eration and the energies plot for the same. Additionally, passes all the FSAE specifications and because of it being the
for 15% relative density, the deceleration level was under lightest of all passed designs and is selected as the final design
control and as density is increased, the energy absorption that can be utilized as the IA. Figure 18(a) and (b) elucidates
was less due to less plastic deformation, which was justified the deceleration and the energies plot for it. Furthermore, 20%
in the Figure 12(a) and (b). 20% relative density geometry relative density design passes all the norms written in the
did not pass the FSAE specifications as density is increased FSAE rulebook and is selected as the second-best design
and it gives more stiff response and less plastic deformation among all three final designs due to its more weight than 15%
and the results justified the theory which are portrayed in relative density. Figure 19(a) and (b) howcases its plots for the
Figure 13(a) and (b). deceleration level and the energies plots.

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 FIGURE 8 (a) Deceleration plot for 12% relative density of the foam (single-truncated). (b) Energy plots for 12% relative density
of the foam (single-truncated).
© SAE International

287

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 FIGURE 9 (a) Deceleration plot for 15% relative density of the foam (single-truncated). (b) Energy plots for 15% relative density
of the foam (single-truncated).

© SAE International

288

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 FIGURE 10 (a) Deceleration plot for 20% relative density of the foam (single-truncated). (b) Energy plots for 20% relative
density of the foam (single-truncated).
© SAE International

289

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 FIGURE 11 (a) Deceleration plot for 12% relative density of the foam (double-truncated). (b) Energy plots for 12% relative
density of the foam (double-truncated).

© SAE International

290

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 FIGURE 12 (a) Deceleration plot for 15% relative density of the foam (double-truncated). (b) Energy plots for 15% relative
density of the foam (double-truncated).
© SAE International

291

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 FIGURE 13 (a) Deceleration plot for 20% relative density of the foam (double-truncated). (b) Energy plots for 20% relative
density of the foam (double-truncated).

© SAE International

292

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 FIGURE 14 (a) Deceleration plot for 12% relative density of the foam (single-truncated—less tapered). (b) Energy plots for 12%
relative density of the foam (single-truncated—less tapered).
© SAE International

293

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 FIGURE 15 (a) Deceleration plot for 15% relative density of the foam (single-truncated—less tapered). (b) Energy plots for 15%
relative density of the foam (single-truncated—less tapered).

© SAE International

294

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 FIGURE 16 (a) Deceleration plot for 20% relative density of the foam (single-truncated—less tapered). (b) Energy plots for 20%
relative density of the foam (single-truncated—less tapered).
© SAE International

295

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 FIGURE 17 (a) Deceleration plot for 12% relative density of the foam (cuboid). (b) Energy plots for 12% relative density of the
foam (cuboid).

© SAE International

296

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 FIGURE 18 (a) Deceleration plot for 15% relative density of the foam (cuboid). (b) Energy plots for 15% relative density of the
foam (cuboid).
© SAE International

297

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 FIGURE 19 (a) Deceleration plot for 20% relative density of the foam (cuboid). (b) Energy plots for 20% relative density of the
foam (cuboid).

© SAE International

298

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 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022 299

Conclusion 7. Coppola, L., De Marco, B., Niola, V., Sakhnevych, A. et al.,

“Impact Attenuator Optimum Design for a Fsae Racing Car
by Numerical and Experimental Crash Analysis,”
•• Three out of twelve designs are finalized utilizing explicit International Journal of Automotive Technology 21, no. 6
dynamic impact analysis that fulfil all the norms (2020): 1339-1348, [Link]
provided by the Formula SAE rulebooks as well as they 8. Pang, T.Y. and Tristian, H., “Experimental and Finite
are the lightest of all the other passing designs. They are Element Nonlinear Dynamics Analysis of Formula SAE
cuboid geometry with 15% and 20% relative density and Impact Attenuator,” in Jazar, R. and Dai, L. (Eds), Nonlinear
the third one is single-truncated (less-tapered) geometry Approaches in Engineering Applications 2 (New York:
with 15% relative density. Springer, 2014), [Link]
•• It is concluded from the study that closed-cell aluminum 9. Rooppakhun, S., Boonporm, P., and Puangcha-um, W.,
foam proved to be a good material for the current “Design and Analysis of Impact Attenuator for Student
application and could be utilized for places where energy Formula,” SAE Technical Paper 2015-01-0094, 2015, https://
absorption is required. [Link]/10.4271/2015-01-0094.
10. Rising, D., Kane, J., Vernon, N., Adkins, J. et al., “Analysis of
•• Geometry also plays a major role in determining a Frontal Impact of a Formula SAE Vehicle,” SAE Technical
whether the design would fulfil all the required norms Paper 2006-01-3627, 2006, [Link]
given in the Formula SAE rulebook. 3627.
•• The computational analysis could save a lot of time and 11. Wang, X. and Zhou, G., “The Static Compressive Behavior of
money in determining the final design. There is no need Aluminum Foam,” Reviews on Advanced Materials Science
to iterate by fabricating all the samples. Instead 33, no. 4 (2013): 316-321.
performing simulation on all the potential designs and 12. Rajak, D., Kumaraswamidhas, L.A., and Das, S., “Technical
fabricating the design that suits all the required Overview of Aluminum Alloy Foam,” Reviews on Advanced
specifications for its further testing are sufficient. Materials Science 48 (2017): 68-86.
13. Sreenivasa, C.G. and Shivakumar, K.M., “Review on
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300 Arora and Venkatachalam / SAE Int. J. Mater. Manuf. / Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022

21. Nguyen, V.P., Anitescu, C., Bordas, S.P., and Rabczuk, T.,
“Isogeometric Analysis: An Overview and Computer Appendix A.1
Implementation Aspects,” Mathematics and Computers in
Simulation 117 (2015): 89-116, [Link] Symbol Description
matcom.2015.05.008. K.E. Kinetic energy of the vehicle in Joules
22. Nguyen-Thanh, N., Nguyen-Xuan, H., Bordas, S., and m Mass of the vehicle in kg including the driver
Rabczuk, T., “Isogeometric Analysis Using Polynomial v Velocity of the vehicle in m/s
Splines Over Hierarchical T-Meshes for Two-Dimensional
ρ∗ Density of the foam in kg/m3
Elastic Solids,” Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and
ρS Density of the aluminum metal in kg/m3
Engineering 200 (2011): 1892-1908, [Link]
∗
cma.2011.01.018. E Young’s modulus of the foam
23. Li, Q., Devarajan, B., Zhang, X., Burgos, R. et al., ES Young’s modulus of aluminum metal
“Conceptual Design and Weight Optimization of Aircraft σ∗pl Plastic stress of the foam
Power Systems with High-Peak Pulsed Power Loads,” SAE σys Yield strength of aluminum metal
Technical Paper 2016-01-1986, 2016, [Link]
τ ∗ Shear strength of the foam
org/10.4271/2016-01-1986. pl

ϵD Densification strain of the foam

Dec. Peak deceleration of the vehicle (g)
Int. ener. Internal energy absorbed in Joules

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