Grant: Alliance Grants

The NSERC/General Motors Alliance Grant in Micromechanics based Modelling of Formability and Fracture in Dual Phase and Quenched and Partitioned Steels to be held by University of Waterloo (Waterloo) mechanical and mechatronics engineering Professor Kaan Inal, will focus on Inal's unique international research expertise in multiscale modeling for developing and testing novel lightweight materials applied to automotive structures and parts. Canada's automotive industry is the strongest manufacturing subsector in the country, responsible for 12 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the goodsproducing sector. To secure its competitive position internationally, the auto industry must continue to innovate to reduce the transportation sector's greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), while ensuring passenger safety and maximizing performance and affordability in mass-market vehicles of all types. Incorporating new lightweight materials, such as advanced high-strength steels, into car structures is a key strategy to achieve these goals. Industry is increasingly dependent on good data and measurements from the emerging field of numerical modeling, in order to make lightweighting decisions effectively and to an accelerated timetable to meet international standards. The lightweighting market is estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars across the supply chain of car manufacturers and materials/parts suppliers in different countries, and lightweighting is projected to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in North American jurisdictions. The proposed research program will contribute to the advanced manufacturing talent pool in Canada's automotive heartland, Ontario.