Towards Affordable, Closed-Loop Recyclable Future Low Carbon Vehicle Structures - TARF-LCV

英国汽车工业是英国经济中一个庞大而关键的部门。它创造了82万个工作岗位，每年出口价值89亿英镑的制成品，每年为英国经济增加100亿英镑的价值。然而，英国汽车工业目前面临着巨大的挑战，例如英国每年二氧化碳排放量的19%和不断增长的份额，激烈的国际竞争，就业下降和国内供应链的空洞化，以及来自监管机构的巨大压力。应对这些挑战的解决方案来自英国政府确定的低碳汽车（lcv）的开发和制造。汽车轻量化是提高燃油经济性和减少二氧化碳排放的最有效途径。世界上许多减少车辆质量的方案都证明了这一点。从历史上看，车辆质量的降低是通过逐个减少特定车辆部件的质量来逐步实现的，很少考虑输入材料的碳足迹和报废车辆（elv）的闭环回收。我们的愿景是，通过部署先进的低碳输入材料、高效的低碳制造工艺和电动汽车的闭环回收，将多材料概念与大规模优化设计方法相结合，实现未来的低碳汽车。为了实现这一愿景，我们聚集了英国最优秀的汽车轻量化学术人才，成立了TARF-LCV联盟，其成员包括8个研究团队，涉及来自布鲁奈尔、考文垂、埃克塞特、帝国理工、曼彻斯特、诺丁汉、牛津布鲁克斯和斯特拉斯克莱德的18名学者。TARF-LCV旨在为轻型汽车未来发展面临的关键挑战提供基本解决方案，这些挑战涉及先进材料、制造技术、整体车辆设计和轻型汽车闭环回收等战略领域。我们制定了一个连贯的研究计划，分为6个工作包。我们将开发用于车身结构和动力系统的闭环可回收铝（Al）和镁（Mg）合金、金属基复合材料（mmc）和可回收聚合物基复合材料（pmc）；发展先进的铸造、成型和高效整车拆装低碳制造技术；我们将为未来的LCV开发开发大规模优化设计原则和特定的生命周期分析（LCA）方法。为了完成为期4年的TARF-LCV项目，除了EPSRC要求的资金外，我们还为布鲁内尔大学EPSRC中心- lime和曼彻斯特大学LATEST2的2名博士后研究人员以及来自合作大学的9名博士生提供了资金支持。因此，研究团队将包括18名学者，11名博士后研究员和18名研究生。这不仅确保了TARF-LCV研究项目的成功交付，而且为英国未来低碳汽车发展的领导者提供了一个培训基地。

The UK automotive industry is a large and critical sector within the UK economy. It accounts for 820,000 jobs, exports finished goods worth £8.9bn annually and adds value of £10bn to the UK economy each year. However, the UK automotive industry is currently facing great challenges, such as responsibility for a 19% and growing share of UK annual CO2 emissions, strong international competition, declining employment and hollowing-out of the domestic supply chain, and enormous pressure from regulatory bodies for decarbonisation. A solution to these challenges comes from the development and manufacture of low carbon vehicles (LCVs), as identified by the UK government. Vehicle lightweighting is the most effective way to improve fuel economy and to reduce CO2 emissions. This has been demonstrated by many vehicle mass reduction programmes worldwide. Historically vehicle mass reduction has been achieved incrementally by reducing the mass of specific vehicle parts piece-by-piece, with little consideration of the carbon footprint of input materials and closed-loop recycling of end of life vehicles (ELVs). Our vision is that the future low carbon vehicle is achieved by a combination of multi-material concepts with mass-optimised design approaches through the deployment of advanced low carbon input materials, efficient low carbon manufacturing processes and closed-loop recycling of ELVs. To achieve this vision, we have gathered the best UK academic brainpower for vehicle lightweighting and formed the TARF-LCV consortium, whose members include 8 research teams involving 18 academics from Brunel, Coventry, Exeter, Imperial, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford Brookes and Strathclyde. TARF-LCV aims to deliver fundamental solutions to the key challenges faced by future development of LCVs in the strategic areas of advanced materials, enabling manufacturing technologies, holistic vehicle design and closed-loop recycling of ELVs. We have developed a coherent research programme organised in 6 work packages. We will develop closed-loop recyclable aluminium (Al) and magnesium (Mg) alloys, metal matrix composites (MMCs) and recyclable polymer matrix composites (PMCs) for body structure and powertrain applications; we will develop advanced low carbon manufacturing technologies for casting, forming and effective vehicle assembly and disassembly; and we will develop mass-optimised design principles and specific life cycle analysis (LCA) methodology for future LCV development. To deliver the 4-year TARF-LCV programme, in addition to the EPSRC funding requested, we have leveraged financial support for 2 post-doctoral research fellows from the EPSRC Centre-LiME at Brunel University and LATEST2 at Manchester University, and for 9 PhD studentships from partner universities. Consequently, the TARF-LCV research team will include 18 academics, 11 post-doctoral research fellows and 18 research students. This not only ensures a successful delivery of the TARF-LCV research programme, but also provides a training ground for the future leaders of low carbon vehicle development in the UK.