Development of strong, formable, stainless and low-cost magnesium alloys for next generation cars
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Materials Science and Engineering
Abstract
Light weighting is one of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers today and urgently required for next generation cars to increase fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Reducing a car's weight by 50 kg decreases emissions by up to 5g CO2/km and increases fuel economy by up to 2%. Being 75% and 33% lighter than steel and aluminium (Al), Mg is becoming more popular with automotive engineers. In theory, Mg alloys offer a promising solution for lightweighting in several industrial sectors. However, Mg components currently only constitute ~1% of a typical car's weight. This is attributed to long-standing issues with Mg alloys such as high production cost, low formability and high corrosion rate, compared to heavier Al and steels. Therefore, designing high performance and low cost Mg alloys is in great demand for automotive industry.
Producing strong, formable, stainless and low-cost Mg alloys is recognised to be extremely difficult and has not to date been achieved. Traditional alloy design routes and manufacturing processing are not only time-consuming and not cost-effective, but also cannot guarantee production Mg alloys with high performance. In addition, the highly debated recrystallisation and deformation mechanisms, critical in optimising mechanical and physical properties of Mg alloys, need to be thoroughly explored and established.
The overall objective of this fellowship is to develop new routes of alloy design, simultaneously developing innovative manufacturing processes, thereby producing strong, formable, stainless and low-cost Mg alloys(e.g., yield strength >300 MPa, Index Erichsen (I.E.) value indicating stretch formability >8mm, corrosion rate <0.4mg/cm2/day). This will be achieved by understanding how the alloying elements interact with each other and how the developed processes can be used to tailor multi-scale microstructures (e.g., alloys containing ultrafine grains (~1 microns) with weak texture). Equipped with vast state-of-the-art facilities covering alloying designing, manufacturing and processing, testing and characterisation, Royce@Sheffield and Sorby Centre will help me deliver a step change in the discovery and development of new Mg alloy systems, enabling concepts development from early, fundamental research right through to translation to industry and, crucially, covering Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 1 to 6.
Recently, a corrosion-resistant Mg-Li alloy was produced, but its high production cost and potential flammability still need to be considered before it can be commercially adopted. My goal is to push the boundaries of high-performance light Mg alloys yet further and I already have evidence that I can increase the strength and corrosion resistance of a commercial Mg alloy, currently approved by U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, without ductility loss using novel thermomechanical processing. This fellowship will address significant challenges in coupling high mechanical properties and corrosion resistance within a single alloy system.
The fellowship aims to help industrial project partners accelerate the development of new advanced light alloys. New thermomechanical/manufacturing processes are exportable technology and will permit companies to develop new IP. My research will be further extended to develop products for aerospace, public transport and medical industries and ensure a low carbon economy in the UK. Most importantly, this fellowship will assemble a new UK team of engineering and microscopists with the aim of turning vulnerable Mg into reliable structural/medical materials, thereby accelerating the pace of light weighting in several industrial sectors.
Producing strong, formable, stainless and low-cost Mg alloys is recognised to be extremely difficult and has not to date been achieved. Traditional alloy design routes and manufacturing processing are not only time-consuming and not cost-effective, but also cannot guarantee production Mg alloys with high performance. In addition, the highly debated recrystallisation and deformation mechanisms, critical in optimising mechanical and physical properties of Mg alloys, need to be thoroughly explored and established.
The overall objective of this fellowship is to develop new routes of alloy design, simultaneously developing innovative manufacturing processes, thereby producing strong, formable, stainless and low-cost Mg alloys(e.g., yield strength >300 MPa, Index Erichsen (I.E.) value indicating stretch formability >8mm, corrosion rate <0.4mg/cm2/day). This will be achieved by understanding how the alloying elements interact with each other and how the developed processes can be used to tailor multi-scale microstructures (e.g., alloys containing ultrafine grains (~1 microns) with weak texture). Equipped with vast state-of-the-art facilities covering alloying designing, manufacturing and processing, testing and characterisation, Royce@Sheffield and Sorby Centre will help me deliver a step change in the discovery and development of new Mg alloy systems, enabling concepts development from early, fundamental research right through to translation to industry and, crucially, covering Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 1 to 6.
Recently, a corrosion-resistant Mg-Li alloy was produced, but its high production cost and potential flammability still need to be considered before it can be commercially adopted. My goal is to push the boundaries of high-performance light Mg alloys yet further and I already have evidence that I can increase the strength and corrosion resistance of a commercial Mg alloy, currently approved by U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, without ductility loss using novel thermomechanical processing. This fellowship will address significant challenges in coupling high mechanical properties and corrosion resistance within a single alloy system.
The fellowship aims to help industrial project partners accelerate the development of new advanced light alloys. New thermomechanical/manufacturing processes are exportable technology and will permit companies to develop new IP. My research will be further extended to develop products for aerospace, public transport and medical industries and ensure a low carbon economy in the UK. Most importantly, this fellowship will assemble a new UK team of engineering and microscopists with the aim of turning vulnerable Mg into reliable structural/medical materials, thereby accelerating the pace of light weighting in several industrial sectors.
Planned Impact
The main outcomes of this fellowship will be alloy designing strategies and novel low-cost processing for Mg alloys. These are core themes in metallurgy and manufacturing and undoubtedly can be applied to other metal and alloy systems. The fellowship outputs therefore will inspire relevant engineers working in light weighting projects distributed in several industry sectors (e.g., transport, aerospace, defence, healthcare, and manufacturing) to address challenges (Clean Growth Mission: Establish the world's first net-zero carbon industrial cluster by 2040 and at least 1 low-carbon cluster by 2030) and accelerate research progress in their R&D departments. For example, Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) in the University of Sheffield works closely with VW and Bentley and the designed high performance alloys will make the automobile makers consider embedding more light Mg alloys into cars to increase their competitiveness in the market and contribute low carbon economy. The UoS has strong links with aero industry via AMRC and can explore industry collaborations with Airbus and Boeing to produce light weighting components. For example, the buy-to-fly ratio of metallic materials can be increased with low-cost light alloy systems and novel cost-effective processing developing these alloys. Most importantly, developing innovative manufacturing and advanced materials associated with the cost-effective decarbonisation will consolidate the UK's prime position at the forefront of the global shift to Clean Growth.
My two industrial project partners will contribute considerable staff time to participate in project annual meetings and support some research activities in their own labs. They will be the first beneficiaries to access our most updated original and research findings and could help them adjust their R&D research areas and investment. In addition, throughout this fellowship, the industrial project partners will gain new knowledge and have a deep understanding of microstructure evolution during processing and how to tailor properties of alloys. This will help industrial project partners to accelerate the development of new low-cost light alloy systems to meet the demand in market and become the main supplier globally. The developed novel thermomechanical/manufacturing processes can be potentially exportable technology as companies develop new IP and the new alloys could also be patented, which will increase the income of companies.
The commercial software suppliers, open source toolbox developers and their users will benefit from the large data, new/modified programme scripts generated during this fellowship when my team use these software and toolboxes for data analysis. The data associated with novel Mg alloys could complement their existing databases, extend their applications to other alloys systems and enhance their research capacity and skills.
In the long term, this project will impact all human beings by reducing carbon emissions resulting from light weighting. Cars with reduced weight can increase fuel/battery efficiency and reduce our travelling cost. Identifying suitable elements to replace rare earth (RE) elements for developing high performance Mg alloys will delay the depletion of strategic RE elements and maintain sustainable development of our society. In addition, avoiding RE elements will reduce significant pollution issues during extracting RE elements from mines and, thereby creating an environmentally friendly life pattern. The Mg alloys can be designed purposely as biomaterials for specific groups of patients. For example, the alloys can be developed into harmless and biodegradable implants (e.g., stents and bone fixation screws) working with healthcare companies. No secondary operation is required to take out the Mg implants from patients' bodies. All these approaches will increase environmental sustainability and benefit the quality of life for the general public.
My two industrial project partners will contribute considerable staff time to participate in project annual meetings and support some research activities in their own labs. They will be the first beneficiaries to access our most updated original and research findings and could help them adjust their R&D research areas and investment. In addition, throughout this fellowship, the industrial project partners will gain new knowledge and have a deep understanding of microstructure evolution during processing and how to tailor properties of alloys. This will help industrial project partners to accelerate the development of new low-cost light alloy systems to meet the demand in market and become the main supplier globally. The developed novel thermomechanical/manufacturing processes can be potentially exportable technology as companies develop new IP and the new alloys could also be patented, which will increase the income of companies.
The commercial software suppliers, open source toolbox developers and their users will benefit from the large data, new/modified programme scripts generated during this fellowship when my team use these software and toolboxes for data analysis. The data associated with novel Mg alloys could complement their existing databases, extend their applications to other alloys systems and enhance their research capacity and skills.
In the long term, this project will impact all human beings by reducing carbon emissions resulting from light weighting. Cars with reduced weight can increase fuel/battery efficiency and reduce our travelling cost. Identifying suitable elements to replace rare earth (RE) elements for developing high performance Mg alloys will delay the depletion of strategic RE elements and maintain sustainable development of our society. In addition, avoiding RE elements will reduce significant pollution issues during extracting RE elements from mines and, thereby creating an environmentally friendly life pattern. The Mg alloys can be designed purposely as biomaterials for specific groups of patients. For example, the alloys can be developed into harmless and biodegradable implants (e.g., stents and bone fixation screws) working with healthcare companies. No secondary operation is required to take out the Mg implants from patients' bodies. All these approaches will increase environmental sustainability and benefit the quality of life for the general public.
Organisations
- University of Sheffield (Lead Research Organisation)
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Luxfer Group (Collaboration)
- TWI The Welding Institue (Collaboration)
- Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies of Materials (Collaboration)
- IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON (Collaboration)
- NUCLEAR ADVANCED MANUFACTURING RESEARCH CENTRE (Collaboration)
- University of Sheffield (Collaboration)
- Central South University (Collaboration)
- Royal Institute of Technology (Collaboration)
- Tohoku University (Collaboration)
- KING'S COLLEGE LONDON (Collaboration)
- The Welding Institute (Project Partner)
- Imperial College London (Project Partner)
- Luxfer MEL Technologies (Project Partner)
- King's College London (Project Partner)
- University of Southampton (Fellow)
People |
ORCID iD |
Dikai Guan (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Gao J
(2021)
Facile route to bulk ultrafine-grain steels for high strength and ductility.
in Nature
Guan D
(2021)
Effect of cryomilling time on microstructure evolution and hardness of cryomilled AZ31 powders.
in Materials characterization
Huang Y
(2023)
Study on martensitic transformation twinning in ductile metastable body-centered-cubic high entropy alloys
in Materials Science and Engineering: A
Huang Y
(2022)
Martensitic twinning transformation mechanism in a metastable IVB element-based body-centered cubic high-entropy alloy with high strength and high work hardening rate
in Journal of Materials Science & Technology
Huang Y
(2022)
Influence of tantalum composition on mechanical behavior and deformation mechanisms of TiZrHfTax high entropy alloys
in Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Litwa P
(2021)
The additive manufacture processing and machinability of CrMnFeCoNi high entropy alloy
in Materials & Design
Ruffino M
(2023)
Triple and double twin interfaces in magnesium-the role of disconnections and facets
in Scientific Reports
Ruffino M
(2023)
Triple and double twin interfaces in magnesium-the role of disconnections and facets
in Scientific Reports
Salmasi A
(2021)
Mobilities of Ti and Fe in disordered TiFe-BCC assessed from new experimental data
in Calphad
Description | 1. A novel method has been developed to recycle and reuse the metal swarf 2. A simple section method was developed to obtain large volume of 3D microstructure information with low cost |
Exploitation Route | The new processing and 3D microstructure characterisation could be adjusted and apply to other alloy systems. |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Energy Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Transport |
Description | Introduction to the UKRI ECR Forum |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Description | International Exchanges 2021 Cost Share (NSFC) |
Amount | £12,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | IEC\NSFC\211323 |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2022 |
End | 03/2024 |
Description | Research Grants 2022 Round 2 |
Amount | £19,730 (GBP) |
Funding ID | RGS\R2\222115 |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 12/2022 |
End | 11/2023 |
Description | Double twinning behaviour in Mg alloys |
Organisation | King's College London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | 1. Attended an online meeting discussing Mg alloy deformation behavior, especially deformation twinnings |
Collaborator Contribution | 1. Attended an online meeting discussing Mg alloy deformation behavior, especially deformation twinnings |
Impact | A high impacted journal paper published in Scientific Reports , please see the link https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-30880-w |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Friction stir processing of ultra-fine grained magnesium alloys |
Organisation | TWI The Welding Institue |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | 1. Attended online meetings every two months, and provided technical advice for TWI's project 2. Supported TWI team to apply for a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship 3. One PhD student and one postdoc is now writing a scientific paper for future submission. |
Collaborator Contribution | 1. Attended online meetings every two months, and provided friction stir welding technical advice for my project. 2. Helped me the timescale of my research work which is going to be conducted in TWI 3. The company contact has been now the industrial supervisor of a PhD student in my group and we have regular supervison meetings |
Impact | Two high impacted journal papers published in Scripta Materialia and MSEA https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135964622300026X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921509323000138 |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Investigation of deformation mechanisums in Mg alloys |
Organisation | Imperial College London |
Department | Department of Mechanical Engineering |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Not Yet |
Collaborator Contribution | Not yet |
Impact | not yet |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Mg alloy design and deformation behaviour analysis |
Organisation | Central South University |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | My team help to analyse the data and make countribution to the writing |
Collaborator Contribution | Central South University lead this collaboration and conducted most of the experiments |
Impact | 1. B. Yang, C. Shi, R. Lai, D. Shi, D. Guan, G. Zhu, Y. Cui, G. Xie, Y. Li, A. Chiba, J. Llorca, Identification of active slip systems in polycrystals by Slip Trace - Modified Lattice Rotation Analysis (ST-MLRA), Scr. Mater. 214 (2022) 114648 2. B. Yang, C. Shi, X. Ye, J. Teng, R. Lai, Y. Cui, D. Guan, H. Cui, Y. Li, A. Chiba, Underlying slip/twinning activities of Mg-xGd alloys investigated by modified lattice rotation analysis, Journal of Magnesium and Alloys, 2021, in press 3. B. Yang, C. Shi, X. Ye, J. Teng, R. Lai, Y. Cui, D. Shi, D. Guan, G. Xie, Y. Li, A. Chiba, A novel strategy to strengthen the hexagonal close-packed (HCP) alloys, J. Alloys Compd, (2022) 162346 |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Mg alloy design and deformation behaviour analysis |
Organisation | Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies of Materials |
Country | Spain |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | My team help to analyse the data and make countribution to the writing |
Collaborator Contribution | Central South University lead this collaboration and conducted most of the experiments |
Impact | 1. B. Yang, C. Shi, R. Lai, D. Shi, D. Guan, G. Zhu, Y. Cui, G. Xie, Y. Li, A. Chiba, J. Llorca, Identification of active slip systems in polycrystals by Slip Trace - Modified Lattice Rotation Analysis (ST-MLRA), Scr. Mater. 214 (2022) 114648 2. B. Yang, C. Shi, X. Ye, J. Teng, R. Lai, Y. Cui, D. Guan, H. Cui, Y. Li, A. Chiba, Underlying slip/twinning activities of Mg-xGd alloys investigated by modified lattice rotation analysis, Journal of Magnesium and Alloys, 2021, in press 3. B. Yang, C. Shi, X. Ye, J. Teng, R. Lai, Y. Cui, D. Shi, D. Guan, G. Xie, Y. Li, A. Chiba, A novel strategy to strengthen the hexagonal close-packed (HCP) alloys, J. Alloys Compd, (2022) 162346 |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Mg alloy design and deformation behaviour analysis |
Organisation | Shanghai Jiao Tong University |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | My team help to analyse the data and make countribution to the writing |
Collaborator Contribution | Central South University lead this collaboration and conducted most of the experiments |
Impact | 1. B. Yang, C. Shi, R. Lai, D. Shi, D. Guan, G. Zhu, Y. Cui, G. Xie, Y. Li, A. Chiba, J. Llorca, Identification of active slip systems in polycrystals by Slip Trace - Modified Lattice Rotation Analysis (ST-MLRA), Scr. Mater. 214 (2022) 114648 2. B. Yang, C. Shi, X. Ye, J. Teng, R. Lai, Y. Cui, D. Guan, H. Cui, Y. Li, A. Chiba, Underlying slip/twinning activities of Mg-xGd alloys investigated by modified lattice rotation analysis, Journal of Magnesium and Alloys, 2021, in press 3. B. Yang, C. Shi, X. Ye, J. Teng, R. Lai, Y. Cui, D. Shi, D. Guan, G. Xie, Y. Li, A. Chiba, A novel strategy to strengthen the hexagonal close-packed (HCP) alloys, J. Alloys Compd, (2022) 162346 |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Mg alloy design and deformation behaviour analysis |
Organisation | Tohoku University |
Country | Japan |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | My team help to analyse the data and make countribution to the writing |
Collaborator Contribution | Central South University lead this collaboration and conducted most of the experiments |
Impact | 1. B. Yang, C. Shi, R. Lai, D. Shi, D. Guan, G. Zhu, Y. Cui, G. Xie, Y. Li, A. Chiba, J. Llorca, Identification of active slip systems in polycrystals by Slip Trace - Modified Lattice Rotation Analysis (ST-MLRA), Scr. Mater. 214 (2022) 114648 2. B. Yang, C. Shi, X. Ye, J. Teng, R. Lai, Y. Cui, D. Guan, H. Cui, Y. Li, A. Chiba, Underlying slip/twinning activities of Mg-xGd alloys investigated by modified lattice rotation analysis, Journal of Magnesium and Alloys, 2021, in press 3. B. Yang, C. Shi, X. Ye, J. Teng, R. Lai, Y. Cui, D. Shi, D. Guan, G. Xie, Y. Li, A. Chiba, A novel strategy to strengthen the hexagonal close-packed (HCP) alloys, J. Alloys Compd, (2022) 162346 |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Mg alloys design and processing |
Organisation | Luxfer Group |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | 1. Attended two quaterly meetings 2. The company contact has been now the industrial supervisor of a PhD student in my group and we have regular supervison meetings |
Collaborator Contribution | 1. Attended two quaterly meetings 2. The company contact has been now the industrial supervisor of a PhD student in my group and we have regular supervison meetings |
Impact | Not yet |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Mobilities of Ti and Fe in disordered TiFe-BCC assessed from new experimental data |
Organisation | Royal Institute of Technology |
Country | Sweden |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | My team did the electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) |
Collaborator Contribution | KTH assessed ternary mobility interaction parameters based on binary endmembers with a DICTRA sub-module, and results are compared to earlier assessments of mobilities of the disordered BCC TiFe system. |
Impact | A. Salmasi, S.J. Graham, I. Galbraith, A.D. Graves, M. Jackson, S. Norgren, D. Guan, H. Larsson, L. Höglund, Mobilities of Ti and Fe in disordered TiFe-BCC assessed from new experimental data, Calphad 74 (2021) 102300 |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Plastic behavior of Mg alloys |
Organisation | Shanghai Jiao Tong University |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Not yet |
Collaborator Contribution | 1. Attended one online meeting to discussing twin nucleation in a Mg alloy |
Impact | Not yet |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | The additive manufacture processing and machinability of CrMnFeCoNi high entropy alloy |
Organisation | Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | 1. My team was responsible for the microstructure characterisation and analysis |
Collaborator Contribution | 1. NAMRC is leading this collaboration and produced the alloy samples |
Impact | P. Litwa, E. Hernandez-Nava, D. Guan, R. Goodall, K.K. Wika, The additive manufacture processing and machinability of CrMnFeCoNi high entropy alloy, Materials & Design 198 (2021) 109380 |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Using MELD to produce high performance light alloys |
Organisation | University of Sheffield |
Department | Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Phase 1: Post deposition analysis is conducted by my reserach group Phase 2: Production of the bulk samples and testing to be conducted by my research group |
Collaborator Contribution | 1.3.1 Phase 1: Optimised deposition trials for Al6082 1.3.2 A Design of Experiments (DOE) array will be conducted to investigate the optimum deposition parameters for Al6082. The DOE has been agreed with MS&E and is a Central Composite Design with 3 repeats of the centre point giving 17 trial runs in total. Straight walls of approximately 100mm in length and 10 mm in height to optimise the process parameters. 1.3.3 Phase 2: Production of large scale wall for fatigue coupon extraction 1.3.4 Using the optimum parameter set identified in Phase 1 two test walls will be produced to provide material for fatigue samples to be taken from. |
Impact | Just started |
Start Year | 2023 |
Description | Mini-lecture for A-level students (Bellerbys) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | I developed presentation slides to allow A-level students to easily understand what the subject of materials science is and what my research areas are. This event promoted participation in Higher Education beyond Sheffield. I also use myself as an example of someone from a minority group to illustrate our department supports and treats all students equally. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |