Curved Barrier Impact of a NASCAR Series Stock Car

A detailed finite element model of a NASCAR Series stock car has been developed by Altair Engineering and used to study a curved barrier impact. This paper will review some of NASCAR’s capabilities in the area of motor sports safety research and provide an overview of a study that has been performed by Altair Engineering. Specifically, the author will compare and contrast results from a curved barrier impact in 3 different scenarios: • Controlled full vehicle crash test • On-track incident with very similar impact conditions • Detailed finite element analysis using LS-DYNA