Most Formula One circuits use tyre barriers for crash protection. Generally, they are composed of bolted tyres, fitted by a conveyor belt to the face of the barriers. The barriers are placed against a rigid wall or a metallic safety barrier. When the protection area is too small, the rigidity of the tyre barrier is improved by polyethylene tubular inserts inside the tyres. The static and dynamic tests realized at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes present the energy boundary condition for the thermoplastic insert used at present. Thus, contrary to what is usually thought, the following studies show that a metallic insert solution is better from an energy dissipation point of view.
WrightP. G.MellorA.Barrier testing. SAE technical paper 983061, 1998.
2.
FIA Standard 8861–2000.FIA energy absorbing inserts for Formula One tyre barriers standard, Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, Paris, 26 January2000, available from www.fia.com/sport/Regulations/standregs.html.
GuéganP.LebretonD.PascoF.OthmanR.PoitouA.Structure amortisseur de chocs, en particulier pour les circuits de compétitions automobiles. Fr. pat. 07/00547, 26 January 2007.
