Grant: Automotive Partnership Canada Project

In response to impending environmental regulation changes in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emission, the global automotive sector has undergone revolutionary changes in the area of automotive structures through the widespread adoption of lightweight materials in the manufacture of vehicles. Magnesium, as the lightest commercial metal, has recently played a central role in light weighting research as potential substitute for steel and aluminum. With the multi-material vehicle architecture concept emerging in automotive design philosophy, ultra-light materials like magnesium should be used in the structural parts for which they perform best. Wrought magnesium alloys have shown excellent fatigue performance and hence are viable candidates for the design and manufacture of fatigue-critical automotive components, components with fatigue strength as their key performance indicator.Unique multidisciplinary research collaboration between the University of Waterloo, Multimatic Inc., Ford Motor Company, Centerline Windsor, and CanmetMATERIALS laboratory has been established to design, build and validate an automotive fatigue-critical component made of magnesium. This end- to- end project covers discovery-level base knowledge of thermomechanical behaviour, durability performance and life enhancement, corrosion protection strategies and performance, metallic smart structures, and computer aided engineering design of forged magnesium alloys. Through this research enabling technology necessary for the optimum design of magnesium fatigue-critical components, robust strategies for die forging and part design are developed.The key findings of this project will provide the base knowledge and methodology required for the fabrication of a high performance, lightweight magnesium suspension part. A critical outcome of this research will be the development of design guidelines for the use of forged magnesium alloys in automotive suspension parts. This project will contribute in a fundamental way to reducing the environmental impact of automobiles while maintaining or improving vehicle performance. The use of magnesium in the manufacture of suspension components will result in significant reduction in the unsprung mass of vehicles, thereby leading to improved ride comfort, handling performance, greater fuel economy, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Project's industrial partners have a strong interest in ensuring that the knowledge generated from this project is transferred into commercial practice in a timely fashion, putting them at the forefront of advanced suspension technologies, boosting competitiveness both in Canada and abroad.