Dispersion Strengthened Magnesium Alloys - Solidification of Nanocolloids
Lead Research Organisation:
Brunel University London
Department Name: BCAST
Abstract
Vehicle lightweighting represents a vital strand of an integrated national approach to transport decarbonisation. There is a general agreement that the CO2 emissions from cars needs to be cut by at least 50% to prevent the well-to-wheels carbon emission from the world car fleet rising above 7bn tonnes rather than the more sustainable 4bn tonnes by 2050. The UK Government has set an even higher target of a 60% reduction in transport sector CO2 emissions by 2030. Implementation of lightweighting across all classes of vehicles plays an important role in achieving this target.
Magnesium (Mg), as a lightest structural metal combined with superior damping capacity, has tremendous potential in achieving lightweighting in vehicles with improved noise, vibration and harshness performance. Recent Mg market research suggests that the global Mg alloys market will increase from £1 billion in 2018 to £2.8 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of ~12.7% between 2019 and 2026 which is expected to be driven by demand for Mg alloys from the automotive & transportation applications due to fuel efficiency and emission regulations. The automotive industry is aiming to increase Mg content from 8.6kg/car in 2017 to 45kg/car by 2030. Among variety of Mg alloys, aluminium containing Mg (Mg-Al) alloys are being used in automotive sector due to their competitive cost. However, their widespread use in vehicle is hindered by their lower strength. To help realise this growth and to meet the stringent design and safety criteria for lightweighting, it is necessary to enhance the strength of existing cost-effective Mg-Al alloys significantly.
The addition of rare-earth (RE) elements and noble metals in magnesium has been successfully utilised to achieve a significant improvement in strength. The alloys that have high RE content exhibit improved strength that meets lightweight design requirement. However, due to the resource scarcity and high cost, the alloys containing RE elements are impractical for their mass structural applications in automotive sector. The role of precipitation hardening in Mg alloys could be fulfilled by ex-situ phase particles, if they are dispersed within the Mg matrix rather than segregated at the grain boundaries. Substantiated by the proof-of-concept study, the proposed research programme aims to develop high strength, cost effective dispersion strengthened magnesium (DSM) alloys. It also investigates the criteria for the stability of nanocolloids, solidification behaviour and establishes process maps suitable for manufacturing DSM alloys using practical casting processes.
Technologically, the DSM alloys represent a step change in the manufacturing technology to produce lightweight automotive components. If certain Al and steel are replaced with DSM alloys, the expected weight saving would be significant. In the longer term, it will lead to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions and offer sizable fuel savings. The industrial partners, comprising a materials supplier, component producers, alloy designer and an end user are an added value and help to accelerate the knowledge transfer activity from academia to industry.
Magnesium (Mg), as a lightest structural metal combined with superior damping capacity, has tremendous potential in achieving lightweighting in vehicles with improved noise, vibration and harshness performance. Recent Mg market research suggests that the global Mg alloys market will increase from £1 billion in 2018 to £2.8 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of ~12.7% between 2019 and 2026 which is expected to be driven by demand for Mg alloys from the automotive & transportation applications due to fuel efficiency and emission regulations. The automotive industry is aiming to increase Mg content from 8.6kg/car in 2017 to 45kg/car by 2030. Among variety of Mg alloys, aluminium containing Mg (Mg-Al) alloys are being used in automotive sector due to their competitive cost. However, their widespread use in vehicle is hindered by their lower strength. To help realise this growth and to meet the stringent design and safety criteria for lightweighting, it is necessary to enhance the strength of existing cost-effective Mg-Al alloys significantly.
The addition of rare-earth (RE) elements and noble metals in magnesium has been successfully utilised to achieve a significant improvement in strength. The alloys that have high RE content exhibit improved strength that meets lightweight design requirement. However, due to the resource scarcity and high cost, the alloys containing RE elements are impractical for their mass structural applications in automotive sector. The role of precipitation hardening in Mg alloys could be fulfilled by ex-situ phase particles, if they are dispersed within the Mg matrix rather than segregated at the grain boundaries. Substantiated by the proof-of-concept study, the proposed research programme aims to develop high strength, cost effective dispersion strengthened magnesium (DSM) alloys. It also investigates the criteria for the stability of nanocolloids, solidification behaviour and establishes process maps suitable for manufacturing DSM alloys using practical casting processes.
Technologically, the DSM alloys represent a step change in the manufacturing technology to produce lightweight automotive components. If certain Al and steel are replaced with DSM alloys, the expected weight saving would be significant. In the longer term, it will lead to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions and offer sizable fuel savings. The industrial partners, comprising a materials supplier, component producers, alloy designer and an end user are an added value and help to accelerate the knowledge transfer activity from academia to industry.
Organisations
- Brunel University London (Lead Research Organisation)
- Caen University (Collaboration)
- Osaka University (Collaboration)
- Alloyed (Collaboration)
- Toyota Motor Corporation (Belgium) (Project Partner)
- Shiloh Industries, Inc. (Project Partner)
- Magontec Group (Project Partner)
- Alloyed Limited (Project Partner)
Description | Funding awarded to specific piece of research work |
Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 12502100 |
Organisation | Alloyed |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 05/2022 |
End | 05/2023 |
Description | International Collaboration |
Amount | £12,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2023 |
End | 02/2025 |
Description | Studentship |
Amount | £48,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 12486100 |
Organisation | Alloyed |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2022 |
End | 03/2026 |
Description | Studentship |
Amount | £48,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | The Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers alias Wire Workers |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2022 |
End | 03/2026 |
Description | Collaboration |
Organisation | Alloyed |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Hari Nadendla was invited to present light metals research at Alloyed. The team at alloyed interested in know-how of composites processing and how these could be achievable in additive manufacturing. |
Collaborator Contribution | Alloyed offered extensive support in the form of offering AM machine hours, engineers time and contribution towards experimental plan. |
Impact | Physical AM samples. Printing strategy development. |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Collaboration |
Organisation | Caen University |
Country | France |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | In an invited lecture at ISS2022, Tsukuba, Prof Nadendla presented particle pushing trapping and role of nano-scale inclusions within the matrix and its impact on superconducting performance. This lecture caught attention of team at Crismat, University of Caen and we have had initiated collaboration work to explore the possibilities of creating in-situ formed reactive products within the matrix (rather than at grain boundaries). |
Collaborator Contribution | Crismat offered an unique powder based manufacturing method to test the hypothesis of creating unique micro-structures. Extended technical support in help optimising the processing parameters. They hosted Professor Nadendla's visit to the lab for two weeks. Brunel University is currently assessing the mechanical properties of these materials. |
Impact | Physical samples and property data-set |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | International Exchanges 2022 Cost Share (JSPS) |
Organisation | Osaka University |
Country | Japan |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This collaboration was initiated during an invited lecture in Japan. Professor Nadendla has discussed the possible scientific reason for particle dispersion in liquid metals and entrapment of nano-particle by the solid growth front. This has attracted a research team who are specialised in producing nano-scale materials using a process which is typically used for producing electronic and Li-ion battery materials. There is a mutual interest here to understand entrapment or decoration of nanoparticles with some other phases. |
Collaborator Contribution | The team offered Brunel to produce nano-scale metallic or ceramic or combined product to test the hypothesis. The team produced a first batch of material and Brunel just initiated the tests. |
Impact | Japan team produced powders. Brunel conducted preliminary tests. |
Start Year | 2022 |
Title | METHOD FOR CARBIDE DISPERSION STRENGTHENED HIGH PERFORMANCE METALLIC MATERIALS |
Description | A method of preparing a mixture of a metal or metal alloy and (NbxTi1-x)C (where 0 |
IP Reference | WO2022023738 |
Protection | Patent / Patent application |
Year Protection Granted | 2022 |
Licensed | No |
Impact | This patent application is now filed in various countries (EU, USA, Brazil and China). The European Patent Application No is 21765969.7. Application numbers for USA , Brazil and China are yet to be known from the patent attorney. |