Computational design - development of advanced low-cost multi-element lightweight alloys

计算设计——先进低成本多元素轻质合金的开发

• 批准号: 561172-2020
• 负责人: Li, Dongyang
• 金额: $ 3.64万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=721911
• 关键词: Computational; design; development; advanced; low

The global oil price slide has heavily impacted the economy of Alberta, which highly relies on its oil sand industry. Alberta needs to diversify and develop multiple industrial sectors for sustainable economy in the long run. The ultimate goal of this project is to establish an Alberta-based Lightweight Materials Research Center, which would help develop local lightweight material manufacturing capability for the Canadian transportation industry and attract future investment nation-wide or globally for developing Alberta's own transportation vehicles' business. Commercial Al and Mg based lightweight alloys have been widely used for fuel saving and reduced harmful emission. However, the alloys are not sufficiently strong, still having performance and safety concerns. In this project, we will develop multi-element lightweight alloys with superior properties over the conventional alloys. This is achievable based on recent studies on high-entropy alloys - an innovative concept proposed initially in 2004. Encouraging lightweight high-entropy alloys (LWHEA) have been produced. However, the current LWHEAs, while possessing higher hardness, have not yet demonstrated sufficient ductility. Besides, their higher cost is another issue. This project is proposed to develop low-cost multi-element Mg-Al-Xi (i=1, 2, 3, ...) lightweight alloys. Multi-elements (Xi) will be used with low quantity. We will use well-established computational techniques, mainly the first-principle method, to design alloys with experimental verification. High-performance prototype alloys will be fabricated and provided to potential users in the automotive industry to evaluate. With the assistance from the potential users in the automotive business, building partnerships and exploring future commercialization paths are highly foreseeable. We believe that the success of this project would help trigger initiation of paving the path to a new industrial sector in Alberta, helping strengthen Alberta economy with higher sustainability and consequently benefiting Albertans in various aspects.

全球油价下滑严重影响了高度依赖油砂行业的艾伯塔省的经济。从长远来看，艾伯塔省需要多元化和发展多种工业部门，以实现经济的可持续发展。该项目的最终目标是建立一个位于艾伯塔省的轻质材料研究中心，该中心将帮助加拿大交通运输业发展当地的轻质材料制造能力，并吸引未来全国或全球的投资，以发展艾伯塔省自己的交通工具业务。工业铝基和镁基轻质合金在节约燃料和减少有害排放方面得到了广泛的应用。然而，这些合金还不够坚固，仍然存在性能和安全方面的问题。在这个项目中，我们将开发性能优于传统合金的多元轻质合金。这是基于最近对高熵合金的研究而实现的--这是一个最初于2004年提出的创新概念。令人鼓舞的是，轻质高熵合金(LWHEA)已经问世。然而，目前的LWHEA虽然具有较高的硬度，但还没有表现出足够的延展性。此外，它们较高的成本是另一个问题。本项目是为了开发低成本的多元镁铝硅(i=1，2，3，…)轻质合金。多元素(XI)将以低数量使用。我们将使用成熟的计算技术，主要是第一原理方法，设计合金并进行实验验证。高性能原型合金将被制造出来，并提供给汽车行业的潜在用户进行评估。在汽车行业潜在用户的帮助下，建立合作伙伴关系和探索未来的商业化道路是非常可预见的。我们相信，该项目的成功将有助于启动为艾伯塔省新工业部门铺平道路，帮助以更高的可持续性加强艾伯塔省经济，从而使艾伯塔省人在各个方面受益。