Hello guys...
i was wondering if you have some information to make some physical tests to the impact attenuator... we´ve made some test to this years car´s IA in a compression machine in our university... but we have the problems to find a professor willing to help us doing this test...
I would like to know how else can we simulate the necessary energy.. because we have a project to build our own tester....
Thank you very much for any information...
I´m so sorry for my english.. i´m venezuelan hehe

We had help from the University's Automotive Safety department for our tests, but the rig was basically a big heavy pendulum setup with a 2ft square flat board on it, with the attenuator bolted to something heavy on the bottom. Very similar to a Charpy test if you've ever done one for a fracture mechanics lab. It's not hard to calculate the height required for the energy absorption you're after.

Other than that, we just had a high-speed camera to see what was going on during the test.