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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Protective conversion coating on mixed-metal substrates and methods thereof

Mixed-metal automotive vehicle bodies-in-white comprising ferrous metal surfaces, zinc surfaces, aluminum alloy surfaces, and magnesium alloy surfaces are cleaned and immersed in an aqueous bath comprising an adhesion promoter and an aqueous electrocoat bath (the adhesion promoter may be in the electrocoat bath. The adhesion promoter, which may be a cerium salt, is selected to react with each metal in the body surfaces to form an oxide layer that provides corrosion resistance for the surface and adherence for the deposited polymeric paint coating. The body is cathodic in the electrocoat deposition.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Mitigating Corrosion in Mg Sheet in Conjunction with a Sheet-Joining Method that Satisfies Structural Requirements within Sub-assemblies

This work was undertaken as a LightMAT project funded by the DOE-Vehicles Technology Office. The goal of this work was to develop corrosion protection strategies that simultaneously mitigate corrosion and achieve Class-A surface finish for Mg components in automotive applications. While automotive metals such as steel and aluminum are protected against corrosion through a variety of coating schemes/packages, the efficacy of these existing coating schemes for Mg and Mg- joints is not clear and needs to be determined. Therefore, five commercially available coating schemes and two joining techniques (riveting and Arplas resistance spot welding) were evaluated. The corresponding individual Mg sheet coupons or Mg/Mg joint test coupons were provided by Magna that were then corrosion tested at PNNL using ASTM B117 procedure. The microstructures and mechanical properties of the coupons were analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the joining and corrosion mitigation strategies. Of the coating schemes evaluated, Henkel Bonderite MgC 2.0 pre-treatment + E-coat showed the best corrosion protection and surface finish for individual Mg coupons and Arplas resistance spot welded coupons. However, the strength of Mg/Mg welded joint was reduced after corrosion testing due to some corrosion at the weld nugget. Mg/Mg rivet joints in conjunction with Chemetall oxisilan pre-treatment + polyurethane coating showed good corrosion resistance and some discoloration on the surface finish. Coating schemes comprising pre-treatment with Alodine 5200 + E-coat or Bonderite 1455 + polyurethane coating, in conjunction with Al rivet joints, showed significant corrosion and extensive discoloration of the surface. We anticipate that the results from this work will provide useful guidance to the automotive industry in selecting the appropriate combinations of corrosion protection coatings and joining techniques to fabricate light-weight Mg-based automotive components.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2011

Electrohydraulic Forming of Sheet Metal for Structural Automotive Applications - PNNL CRADA 258 Project Letter Agreement 1

This project focused on developing, characterizing, and commercializing electrohydraulic forming of sheet metal for structural automotive applications. Pulsed electrohydraulic forming is an electrodynamic process based upon high-voltage discharge of capacitors between two electrodes positioned in a fluid-filled chamber. The electrical discharge results in the vaporization of a small volume of the liquid, which creates a high-intensity, high-velocity shock wave in the liquid. The shock wave is directed toward a sheet metal workpiece, which is ultimately driven into a die.

aluminum↗
DOE OSTI2018

Copper-Cobalt-Cerium Ternary Oxide as an Additive to a Conventional Platinum-Group-Metal Catalyst for Automotive Exhaust Catalysis

Recently, we reported on a ternary mixed-oxide catalyst that showed low-temperature CO oxidation activity under lean exhaust conditions without inhibition by hydrocarbons such as propene. However, the hydrocarbon oxidation activity of this Cu–Co–Ce (CCC) catalyst cannot be considered as a stand-alone solution to low-temperature automotive exhaust catalysis. To achieve both low-temperature oxidation of pollutants and a reduction in the total platinum-group-metal (PGM) content, we examined a 50 % physical mixture of traditional Pt/Al 2 O 3 and our CCC catalyst in two simulated exhaust protocols. Using this physical mixture, we were able to obtain equivalent or better hydrocarbon activity than the baseline Pt/Al 2 O 3 catalyst with half the total PGM content as well as increased sulfur tolerance for the CCC component of the mixture. Diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy data confirmed that despite exposure of sulfur-sensitive CCC to SO 2 , Cu + -carbonyl binding sites could still be seen if the catalyst was mixed with Pt/Al 2 O 3 .

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Printed Metal Molds for Mainstream Automotive Production

The main focus of this work was to evaluate additive manufacturing of metal molds, with significantly reduced cost and/or procurement lead time, for production of large composite components for mainstream (> 100k units/yr) automobiles. A two-component large tool with conformal heating channels was designed, optimized, printed, machined, and tested in production. The resulting analysis indicates that large scale AM is suitable for manufacturing complex geometry large scale metal molds.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Design optimization of lightweight automotive seatback through additive manufacturing compression overmolding of metal polymer composites

With the growing demand for enhanced automotive fuel efficiency and environmental sustainability, there is a need for lightweighting automotive components through innovative design and manufacturing processes. Here, this study leverages a combination of numerical iterative design optimization and hybrid additive manufacturing–compression molding (AM-CM) technique for metal polymer composites to lightweight an automotive seatback. The AM-CM process enables robust mechanical interlocking between metals and composites, boasting high stiffness and strength with low overall density. Replacing metallic components with such metal polymer composites allows for comparable mechanical performance while significantly reducing the overall weight. First, the automotive seatback design space is reduced to critical load carrying regions using topology optimization and high stress concentration areas are identified using finite element analysis. Next, a lightweight metal polymer subcomponent is designed for a high stress concentration region. The full seatback frame with spatially heterogeneous material-specific design is then iteratively optimized to enable enhanced stiffness with minimal weight. Overall, the automotive seatback frame designed with location-specific metal, polymer, and metal polymer composite materials weighs 20% less than the metal-only design while exhibiting similar stiffness.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

FY2013 Lightweight Materials R&D Annual Progress Report

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Vehicle Technologies Program (VTO), the Lightweight Materials (LM) activity focuses on the development and validation of advanced materials and manufacturing technologies to significantly reduce light and heavy duty vehicle weight without compromising other attributes such as safety, performance, recyclability, and cost.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2015

FY2014 Lightweight Materials R&D Annual Progress Report

The Lightweight Materials research and development (R&D) area within the DOE Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) provides support and guidance for many cutting-edge automotive technologies under development. Research focuses on addressing critical barriers to commercializing lightweight materials for passenger and commercial vehicles.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2017

FY2016 Lightweight Materials Annual Progress Report

The Lightweight Materials research and development (R&D) area within the DOE Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) provides support and guidance for many cutting-edge automotive technologies under development. Research focuses on addressing critical barriers to commercializing lightweight materials for passenger and commercial vehicles. This report describes the progress made on the research and development projects funded by the Lightweight Materials area.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

FY2015 Lightweight Materials R&D Annual Progress Report

The Lightweight Materials research and development (R&D) area within the DOE Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) provides support and guidance for many cutting-edge automotive technologies under development. Research focuses on addressing critical barriers to commercializing lightweight materials for passenger and commercial vehicles. This report describes the progress made on the research and development projects funded by the Lightweight Materials area.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Materials 2018 Annual Progress Report

The Materials Technology Program supports the Vehicles Technologies Office’s mission to help consumers and businesses reduce their transportation energy costs while meeting or exceeding vehicle performance expectations. The propulsion materials research portfolio seeks to develop higher performance materials that can withstand increasingly extreme environments and address the future properties needs of a variety of high-efficiency powertrain types, sizes, fueling concepts, and combustion modes. Advanced lightweight materials enable improvements in fuel economy by providing properties that are equal to or better than traditional materials at a lower weight. Because it takes less energy to accelerate a lighter object, replacing cast-iron and traditional steel components with lightweight materials such as high-strength steel, magnesium (Mg), aluminum (Al), and polymer composites can directly reduce a vehicle’s fuel consumption. Materials technology activities focus on the following cost and performance targets: (1) enable a 25% weight reduction for light-duty (LD) vehicles including body, chassis, and interior as compared to a model year 2012 baseline at no more than a $\$$5/lb-saved increase in cost; and (2) validate a 25% improvement in high-temperature (300°C) development of engine exhaust catalyst materials strength relative to components made with 2010 baseline cast Al alloys (A319 or A356) for improved efficiency LD engines.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2020

FY2019 Materials Annual Progress Report

The Materials Technology Program supports the Vehicle Technologies Office’s (VTO’s) mission to help consumers and businesses reduce their transportation energy costs while meeting or exceeding vehicle performance expectations. The propulsion materials research portfolio seeks to develop higher performance materials that can withstand increasingly extreme environments and address the future properties needed for a variety of high-efficiency powertrain types, sizes, fueling concepts, and combustion modes. The lightweight materials research portfolio enables improvements in fuel economy by providing properties that are equal to or better than traditional materials at a lower weight. Because it takes less energy to accelerate a lighter object, replacing cast-iron and traditional steel components with lightweight materials such as advanced high-strength steels, magnesium (Mg) alloys, aluminum (Al) alloys, and fiber-reinforced polymer composites can directly reduce a vehicle’s fuel consumption. By 2025, Materials Technology research activities seek to enable a 25% weight reduction of the glider for light-duty (LD) vehicles including body, chassis, and interior as compared to a 2015 baseline at no more than a $5/lb-saved increase in cost.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2021

FY2020 Materials Annual Progress Report

The Materials Technology subprogram supports the Vehicle Technologies Office’s (VTO’s) mission to accelerate the deployment of clean energy technology toward achieving net-zero emissions in the transportation sector. The Propulsion Materials research portfolio seeks to develop higher performance materials that can withstand increasingly extreme environments and address the future properties needed for a variety of high-efficiency powertrain types, sizes, fueling concepts, and combustion modes. The Lightweight Materials research portfolio enables improvements in fuel economy by providing properties that are equal to or better than traditional materials at a lower weight. Because it takes less energy to accelerate a lighter object, replacing cast-iron (Fe) and traditional steel components with lightweight materials—such as advanced high-strength steels (AHSS), magnesium (Mg) alloys, aluminum (Al) alloys, and fiber-reinforced polymer composites—can directly reduce a vehicle’s fuel consumption. By 2025, the Materials Technology research activities seek to enable a 25% weight reduction of the glider for light-duty (LD) vehicles including body, chassis, and interior as compared to a 2015 baseline at no more than a $5/lb-saved increase in cost.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Enabling Composite Processing through the OEM Assembly Line

This project established the fundamentals of electrocoat and structural adhesive bonding of automotive composites to enable composite-to-metal bonding through the automotive OEM assembly line. Results include an understanding of surface preparation and adhesive curing requirements for Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) to produce strong durable structural composite bonds.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2016

Collision Welding of Dissimilar Materials by Vaporizing Foil Actuator: A Breakthrough Technology for Dissimilar Metal Joining

This work demonstrated and further developed Vaporizing Foil Actuator Welding (VFAW) as a viable technique for dissimilar-metal joining for automotive lightweighting applications. VFAW is a novel impact welding technology, which uses the pressure developed from electrically-assisted rapid vaporization of a thin aluminum foil (the consumable) to launch and ultimately collide two of more pieces of metal to create a solid-state bond between them. 18 dissimilar combinations of automotive alloys from the steel, aluminum and magnesium alloy classes were screened for weldability and characterized by metallography of weld cross sections, corrosion testing, and mechanical testing. Most combinations, especially a good number of Al/Fe pairs, were welded successfully. VFAW was even able to weld combinations of very high strength materials such as 5000 and 6000 series aluminum alloys to boron and dual phase steels, which is difficult to impossible by other joining techniques such as resistance spot welding, friction stir welding, or riveting. When mechanically tested, the samples routinely failed in a base metal rather than along the weld interface, showing that the weld was stronger than either of the base metals. As for corrosion performance, a polymer-based protective coating was used to successfully combat galvanic corrosion of 5 Al/Fe pairs through a month-long exposure to warm salt fog. In addition to the technical capabilities, VFAW also consumes little energy compared to conventional welding techniques and requires relatively light, flexible tooling. Given the technical and economic advantages, VFAW can be a very competitive joining technology for automotive lightweighting. The success of this project and related activities has resulted in substantial interest not only within the research community but also various levels of automotive supply chain, which are collaborating to bring this technology to commercial use.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Selective Electrocatalysis Imparted by Metal-Insulator Transition for Durability Enhancement of Automotive Fuel Cells.

Repetitive start-up and shut-down events in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells for automotive applications lead to serious corrosion of the cathode due to an instantaneous potential jump that results from unintended air leakage into the anodic flow field followed by a parasitic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on the anode. Here we report a solution to the cathode corrosion issue during the start-up/shut-down events whereby intelligent catalyst design is used to selectively promote the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) while concomitantly suppressing the ORR on the anode. Platinum thin layers supported on hydrogen tungsten bronze (Pt/HxWO3) suppressed the ORR by converting themselves into an insulator following exposure to oxygen, while selectively promoting the HOR by regaining metallic conductivity following subsequent exposure to hydrogen. The HOR-selective electrocatalysis imparted by a metal-insulator transition in Pt/HxWO3 demonstrated a remarkably enhanced durability of membrane electrode assemblies compared to those with commercial Pt/C catalysts.

Jung, Sang-Mun↗
DOE OSTI2016

Rapid Carbon Fiber Prepreg Molding Technology for Automobile Structural Parts - "SEAHAWKS"

Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) offer a variety of potential benefits to automotive parts vs. metals, mainly in the form of light-weighting, part consolidation, and corrosion resistance. However, complexities of composite manufacturing and lack of robust supply chain evolution and integration have hindered technological advancements to overcome high manufacturing costs, slow production rates and prolonged time to market. As a result, the use of CFRP in automotive structural parts has been limited to expensive “low to medium” volume platforms. The project overall investigates a concept of ecosystem-based composite manufacturing that enables rapid implementation of an integrated manufacturing system. Through partnering with individual organizations in the prepreg supply chain along with their respective technological advancements in materials, part designs, tool, equipment, recycling and repair, this project’s objective is to integrate these technologies into a manufacturing system through optimizing them individually and as a whole. Upon a successful delivery of a finished composite component to market, all associated technologies are evolved to production readiness levels not only individually but also in part of the integrated manufacturing system itself. Risks are mitigated effectively, as development costs and successes (and/or failures) are shared among all organizations. As a result, further cost reduction of the finished component is anticipated. Toray Composites (America) Inc. led the effort along with 13 other organizations to investigate and validate the concept. Phase I of this project via flat panel demonstrations focused on molding aspects of the integrated manufacturing system from several combinations of prepreg materials and molding methods used such as hydraulic press, RapidClave®, heated composite light tool (HCLT), light induction tool (LIT) and Quickstep. Other aspects such as automation equipment, recycling and component identification to further investigate and validate the concept via component demonstration in Phase II were also explored. It was found that several prepreg/process combinations could achieve a 3-6 min cure cycle time with panel thickness from 0.8 to 2.4 mm. This can be achieved under compaction pressure as low as vacuum, leading to composite panels that are void free, have good to excellent molded surfaces, Tg (by G’onset of DMA) ranging from 120-190 °C, and mechanical performance comparable to conventional autoclave cure.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗