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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.
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.
Towards intelligent microstructural design of Nanocomposite Materials. Lightweight, high strength structural/armor materials for service in extreme environments
The intent of this research effort is to prove the hypothesis that: Through the employment of controlled processing parameters which are based upon integrated advanced material characterization and multi-physics material modeling, bulk nanolayered composites can be designed to contain high densities of preferred interfaces that can serve as supersinks for the defects responsible for premature damage and failure.
Manufacturing Energy Intensity and Opportunity Analysis for Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites and Other Lightweight Materials
With their high strength-to-weight ratios, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are important materials for lightweighting in structural applications; however, manufacturing challenges such as low process throughput and poor quality control can lead to high costs and variable performance, limiting their use in commercial applications. One of the most significant challenges for advanced composite materials is their high manufacturing energy intensity. This study explored the energy intensities of two lightweight FRP composite materials (glass- and carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers), with three lightweight metals (aluminum, magnesium, and titanium) and structural steel (as a reference material) included for comparison. Energy consumption for current typical and state-of-the-art manufacturing processes were estimated for each material, deconstructing manufacturing process energy use by sub-process and manufacturing pathway in order to better understand the most energy intensive steps. Energy saving opportunities were identified and quantified for each production step based on a review of applied R&D technologies currently under development in order to estimate the practical minimum energy intensity. Results demonstrate that while carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites have the highest current manufacturing energy intensity of all materials considered, the large differences between current typical and state-of-the-art energy intensity levels (the 'current opportunity') and between state-of-the-art and practical minimum energy intensity levels (the 'R&D opportunity') suggest that large-scale energy savings are within reach.
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.
Lightweight Materials for Automotive Application: An Assessment of Material Production Data for Magnesium and Carbon Fiber
The use of lightweight materials in vehicle components, also known as “lightweighting,” can result in automobile weight reduction, which improves vehicle fuel economy and generally its environmental footprint. Materials often used for vehicle lightweighting include aluminum, magnesium, and polymers reinforced with either glass or carbon fiber. However, because alternative materials typically used for vehicle lightweighting require more energy to make on a per part basis than the material being replaced (often steel or iron), the fuel efficiency improvement induced by a weight reduction is partially offset by an increased energy for the vehicle material production. To adequately quantify this tradeoff, reliable and current values for life-cycle production energy are needed for both conventional and alternative materials. Our focus here is on the production of two such alternative materials: magnesium and carbon fibers. Both these materials are low density solids with good structural properties. These properties have enabled their use in applications where weight is an issue, not only for automobiles but also for aerospace applications. This report addresses the predominant production methods for these materials and includes a tabulation of available material and energy input data necessary to make them. The life cycle inventory (LCI) information presented herein represents a process chain analysis (PCA) approach to life cycle assessment (LCA) and is intended for evaluation as updated materials production data for magnesium and carbon fiber for inclusion into the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation model (GREET2_2012). The summary life-cycle metrics used to characterize the cradle-to-gate environmental performance of these materials are the cumulative energy demand (CED) and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) per kilogram of material.
FY 2011 Progress Report for Lightweighting Materials
The FY 2011 Progress Report for Lightweighting Materials 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.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory Lightweight Materials (LightMAT) Capabilities
This poster demonstrates NREL's capabilities to support lightweight materials (LightMAT) research in the areas of processing and manufacturing, characterization, and computational tools.
Demonstration Project for a Multi-Material Lightweight Prototype Vehicle as Part of the Clean Energy Dialogue with Canada
The intent of the Multi-Material Lightweight Vehicle (“MMLV”) was to assess the feasibility of achieving a significant level of vehicle mass reduction, enabling engine downsizing resulting in a tangible fuel reduction and environmental benefit. The MMLV project included the development of two (2) lightweight vehicle designs, referred to as Mach-I and Mach-II MMLV variants, based on a 2013 Ford production C/D segment production vehicle (Fusion). Weight comparison, life cycle assessment and limited full vehicle testing are included in the project scope. The Mach-I vehicle variant was comprised of materials and processes that are commercially available or previously demonstrated. The 363 kg mass reduction associated with the Mach-I design enabled use of a one-liter, three-cylinder, gasoline turbocharged direct injection engine, maintaining the performance and utility of the baseline vehicle. The full MMLV project produced seven (7) MMLV Mach-I “concept vehicles” which were used for testing and evaluation. The full vehicle tests confirmed that MMLV Mach-I concept vehicle performed approximately equivalent to the baseline 2013 Ford Fusion vehicle thereby validating the design of the multi material lightweight vehicle design. The results of the Life Cycle Assessment, conducted by third party consultant, indicated that if the MMLV Mach-I design was built and operated in North America for 250,000 km (155,343 miles) it would produce significant environmental and fuel economy benefits including a 16% reduction in Global Warming Potential (GWP) and 16% reduction in Total Primary Energy (TPE). The LCA calculations estimated the combined fuel economy of 34 mpg (6.9 l/100 km) associated with the MMLV Mach-I Design compared to 28 mpg (8.4 l/100 km) for the 2013 Ford Fusion.
Lattice Design and Advanced Modeling to Guide the Design of High-Performance Lightweight Structural Materials
Lightweight structural materials are required to increase the mobility of fission batteries. The materials must feature a robust combination of mechanical properties to demonstrate structural resilience. The primary objective of this project is to produce lightweight structural materials whose strength-to-weight ratios exceed those of the current widely used structural materials such as 316L stainless steels (316L SS). To achieve this, advanced modeling and simulation tools were employed to design lattice structures with different lattice parameters and different lattice types. A process was successfully developed for transforming lattice-structures models into Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment (MOOSE) inputs. Finite element modeling (FEM) was used to simulate the uniaxial tensile testing of the lattice-structured parts to investigate the stress distribution at a given displacement. The preliminary results showed that the lattice-structured sample displayed a lower Young’s modulus in comparison with the solid material and that the unit cell size of the lattice had a minimal effect. The novelty here is to apply up-front modeling to determine the best structure for the application before actually producing the sample. The approach of using modeling as a guiding tool for preliminary material design can significantly save time and cost for material development.
Lightweight Materials 2012 Annual Progress Report
The FY 2012 Annual Progress Report for Lightweight Materials provides a detailed description of the activities and technical accomplishments which 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.
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.
Lightweight Materials - Carbon Fiber and Polymer Composites, Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) Predictive Tools Development for Low-Cost Carbon Fiber for Lightweight Vehicles (University of Virginia) (Final Report)
This project aimed to develop low-cost alternative precursors and processing techniques through the implementation of an integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) framework to evaluate precursor conversion kinetics. Once established, this framework was then used to down-select precursors for laboratory- and pilot-scale production to validate resulting carbon fiber (CF) material properties and process cost-savings. The two most promising approaches to reduce the cost of CFs were to (1) use new low-cost precursors and (2) reduce the energy requirements of CF processing. These approaches were investigated over the course of three phases of work, spanning 3.5 years. This report describes the overall project objectives, approach, and the key accomplishments in each phase.
MAT 329: Cost Efficient, Bio-Derivable, and Lightweight Materials for Vehicle's Thermal Energy Management
Objective: Enable lightweight and multifunctional composites by combining CF composites with encapsulated phase-change materials for temperature regulation. Impacts: The multifunctionality of the composites provides benefits over today's aluminum enclosures which could help drive CF composites adoption; and By implementing CF composites, battery enclosures can be lightweighted leading to a greater vehicle efficiency.
2014 VTO Annual Merit Review Presentations Lightweight Materials [Slides]
Abstract not provided.
PNGV Lightweight Materials Final Report CRADA No. TC-0296-92-a
The project is a relationship between the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and General Motors Corporation (GM).
2012 VTO Annual Merit Review Presentations Lightweight Materials [Slides]
Abstract not provided.