Sustainable Lightweighting Strategies: Long Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites for Structural Automotive Applications

近年来，减少汽车碳足迹的燃料经济性要求和政府法规已经推动了车辆质量减少策略。这些战略通过在材料选择和设计、可持续工程和制造方面引入创新技术，帮助原始设备制造商（OEM）平衡成本、质量和性能。汽车轻量化与汽车的使用寿命密切相关，对降低汽车CO2排放具有重要作用。 复合材料具有优异的机械性能，可转化为优于传统汽车结构钢的性能增益。在复合材料中，长纤维增强热塑性塑料（LFRT）由于其低制造成本、上级机械性能、重量轻和可回收性而受到汽车工业的特别关注。用LFRT复合材料代替汽车的能量吸收（金属）部件以提高汽车部件在碰撞情况下的性能具有巨大的兴趣。 在该研究计划中产生的知识将转移到纤维增强复合材料技术领域的工业合作者，以优化其在冲击载荷条件下的能量吸收性能。这将通过开发先进的实验表征支持的复杂的多尺度数值模型来实现。在这个项目的过程中，复合材料的行为在不同长度尺度的冲击载荷的基础知识将被推进。此外，将开发具有预测能力的机制驱动的多尺度模型，以模拟复合材料的机械响应。这些模型将作为UMAT在商业软件包LS-DYNA中实现。最后，使用先进的机械和材料表征技术，如TEM/SEM研究和纳米压痕，纤维增强复合材料失效的基本理解将得到加强。 本项目将培养复合材料领域的2名博士生、4名硕士生和3名本科生。加拿大将受益于这些训练有素的高素质人员。该项目产生的HQP不仅有助于维持尖端技术的发展，还将有助于提高加拿大原始设备制造商的竞争力。

Fuel economy requirements and government regulations to reduce the carbon footprint of automobiles have driven vehicle mass reduction strategies in recent years. These strategies have helped the original equipment manufacturer (OEMs) to balance cost, mass, and performance by introducing innovative technologies in materials selection and design, sustainable engineering, and manufacturing. Since lightweighting approaches have close relations with the vehicles’ service life, they have significant effects on reducing automobiles’ CO2 emissions. Composite materials offer excellent mechanical properties that can be translated to performance gains over conventional automotive structural steels. Among composites, long-fiber-reinforced-thermoplastics (LFRT) are of particular interest to auto industries due to their low manufacturing cost, superior mechanical properties, light weight, and recyclability. There is a huge interest in replacing the energy absorbing (metal) parts of automobiles with LFRT composites to enhance the performance of automotive parts in the event of crash. The knowledge generated during this research program will be transferred to the industrial collaborators in the field of fibre reinforced composite techniques to optimize their energy absorption properties under impact loading conditions. This will be achieved by developing sophisticated multiscale numerical models supported with advanced experimental characterization. During the course of this project, the fundamental knowledge of composite material behaviour during impact loading in different length scales will be advanced. In addition, mechanism driven multiscale models with predictive capabilities to simulate the mechanical response of composites will be developed. These models will be implemented as UMATs in commercial package LS-DYNA. Finally, using advanced mechanical and material characterization techniques, such as TEM/SEM studies and nanoindentations, fundamental understanding of fibre reinforced composites failure will be enhanced. This project will train 2 Doctoral, 4 Master's, and 3 undergraduate students in the field of composite materials. Canada will benefit from these trained highly qualified personnel (HQP). The HQP produced from this project will not only help to sustain the development of cutting-edge technologies but will also contribute to the competitiveness of Canadian OEMs.