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

近年来，燃油经济性要求和减少汽车碳足迹的政府法规推动了汽车质量减少战略。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。由于轻量化措施与车辆的使用寿命密切相关，因此对降低汽车的二氧化碳排放具有显著的效果。*复合材料提供了优异的机械性能，可转化为比传统汽车结构钢更好的性能。在复合材料中，长纤维增强热塑性塑料(LFRT)因其制造成本低、力学性能优异、重量轻和可回收利用而受到汽车工业的特别关注。人们对用LFRT复合材料替换汽车的吸能(金属)部件以提高汽车部件在发生碰撞时的性能非常感兴趣。*这项研究计划中产生的知识将被转移给纤维增强复合材料技术领域的行业合作伙伴，以优化其在冲击载荷条件下的能量吸收性能。这将通过开发复杂的多尺度数值模式来实现，并以先进的实验表征为支持。在这个项目的过程中，将提高复合材料在不同长度尺度下的冲击加载行为的基本知识。此外，还将开发具有预测能力的机制驱动的多尺度模型来模拟复合材料的力学响应。这些模型将作为UMATs在商业包LS-DYNA中实现。最后，使用先进的力学和材料表征技术，如透射电子显微镜/扫描电子显微镜研究和纳米压痕，将加强对纤维增强复合材料失效的基本了解。*该项目将培养复合材料领域的2名博士、4名硕士和3名本科生。加拿大将受益于这些训练有素的高素质人员(HQP)。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. **