Southern Regional Center for Lightweight Innovative Design

Abstract

Lightweighting materials are critical to reducing emissions and the United States' reliance on foreign oil. Understanding how lightweighting materials utilized in vehicles perform in crash scenarios is paramount as well, for passenger safety as well as energy efficiency are primary design challenges facing today's automotive industry. The Southern Regional Center for Lightweight Innovative Design (SRCLID) plans to develop an experimentally validated cradle-to-grave modeling and simulation effort to optimize automotive and truck components in order to decrease weight and cost, yet increase performance and safety in crash scenarios.SRCLID's end-to-end ("Atoms to Autos") modeling effort quantifies the microstructure-property relations of lightweight materials by evaluating them at various length scales, starting at the atomic level, for each step of the manufacturing process. Utilizing theory development, experimental characterization, and large scale computing, we have developed multiscale physics-based material models that are experimentally validated and account for uncertainty. Our design methodologies then guide design optimization of components, systems, and materials in engineering practice throughout the southern automotive corridor of the US. Both the new, lightweight materials and the math-based tools developed through SRCLID are being implemented in development of next-generation vehicles, with particular consideration given to their performance under various crash and high-speed impact environments.In summary, the three major objectives of this Phase III project are:• To develop experimentally validated cradle-to-grave modeling and simulation tools to optimize automotive and truck components for lightweighting materials (aluminum, steel, and Mg alloys and polymer-based composites) with consideration of uncertainty to decrease weight and cost, yet increase the performance and safety in impact scenarios;• To develop multiscale computational models that quantify microstructure-property relations by evaluating various length scales, from the atomic through component levels, for each step of the manufacturing process for vehicles; and• To develop an integrated K-12 educational program to educate students on lightweighting designs and impact scenarios.S o u t h e r n R e g i o n a l C e n t e r f o r L i g h t w e i g h t I n n o v a t i v e D e s i g n Ex. Sum.-Page 2 AccomplishmentsWe are generating process-structure-property (PSP) relationships for aluminum, steel and magnesium alloys, and we have developed a physics-based multiscale internal state variable (ISV) model that includes uncertainty. We validated the model for aluminum and steel alloys and have begun to validate it for magnesium alloys. We developed a material database, ISV material models, and process models for extruded (AM30 and AZ61) and warm formed (AZ31) magnesium alloys. The database includes results from the mechanical and microstructure characterization studies performed using current experimental equipment at CAVS. The material model ...