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Ti-alloy sheet is a high-modulus elastic-plastic material, about which the resilience in the cold-forming process is quite difficult to control. As a matter of fact, the procedure of cold-forming is composed of many cases such as tensile case and bending case. An expression of ultimate radius for bending-curvature is obtained based on tri-parameters elastic-plastic constitutive model. By classifying the cold-forming process, some typical cases of cold-forming are presented in this paper, and analytical solutions with a high precision of resilience for high-modulus elastic-plastic material such as Ti-alloy sheet under the different typical cases are obtained in this paper. The accurate analytical solutions of resilience for high-modulus elastic-plastic material presented in this paper will contribute to cold-forming process both in the mould-designing and optimizing of cold-forming procedure.

Numerical durability analysis is the only approach that can be used to assess the durability of vehicles in early stages of development. In these stages, where there are no physical prototypes available, the road wheel forces (or spindle forces) for durability testing on Belgian PG (Proving Ground) must be predicted by VPG (Virtual Proving Ground) or derived from the measured forces of predecessor vehicles. In addition, the tuning parts and geometry are not fixed at these stages. This results in the variation of spindle forces during the development stages. Therefore, it is not reasonable to choose the forces predicted at a specific tuning condition as standard forces. It is more reasonable to determine the standard forces stochastically using the DB of the measured forces of predecessor vehicles. The spindle forces measured or predicted on Belgian PG are typically stationary random.

In order to predict the thermal fatigue life of the internal combustion engine exhaust manifold effectively, it was necessary to accurately obtain the unsteady heat transfer process between hot streams and exhaust manifold all the time. This paper began with the establishment of unsteady coupled heat transfer model by using serial coupling method of CFD and FEA numerical simulations, then the bidirectional thermal coupling analysis between fluid and structure was realized, as a result, the difficulty that the transient thermal boundary conditions were applied to the solid boundary was solved. What's more, the specific coupling mode, the physical quantities delivery method on the coupling interface and the surface mesh match were studied. On this basis, the differences between strong coupling method and portioned treatment for solving steady thermal stress numerical analysis were compared, and a more convenient and rapid method for solving static thermal stress was found.

Engine torque profile shaping strategies have been proposed to reduce noise & vibration for passenger cars. However, it has not been sufficiently studied that feasible torque profile for vibration suppression is dependent on engine speed and target torque shape. On the other hand, combustion pressure profile shaping strategies have been proposed to reduce noise. However, there is almost no research of the quantitative evaluation of contribution of combustion pressure profile. First, the torque profile shaping was studied. Pre-compensated torque and 2-step torque were selected as typical target torque profiles. An effectiveness of vibration suppression by two torque profiles was evaluated by both drivetrain vibration model and engine torque profile model which have been established well. As a result of studying the torque profile shaping, timing of torque rise by the 2-step torque generation is delayed or advanced.

Clutch wear is dominantly manifested as the reduction of friction plate thickness. For dry dual clutch with position-controlled electromechanical actuators this affects the accuracy of normal force control because of the increased clutch clearance. In order to compensate for the wear, dry dual clutch is equipped with wear compensation mechanism. The paper presents results of experimental characterization and mathematical modeling of two clutch wear related effects. The first one is the decrease of clutch friction plate thickness (i.e. increase of clutch clearance) which is described using friction material wear rate experimentally characterized using a pin-on-disc type tribometer test rig. The second wear related effect, namely the influence of the clutch wear compensation mechanism activation at various stages of clutch wear on main clutch characteristics, was experimentally characterized using a clutch test rig which incorporates entire clutch with related bell housing.

In present paper, the process of joining aluminum alloy 6111T4 and steel HSLA340 sheets by self-piercing riveting (SPR) is studied. The rivet material properties were obtained by inverse modeling approach. Element erosion technique was adopted in the LS-DYNA/explicit analysis for the separation of upper sheet before the rivet penetrates into lower sheet. Maximum shear strain criterion was implemented for material failure after comparing several classic fracture criteria. LS-DYNA/implicit was used for springback analysis following the explicit riveting simulation. Large compressive residual stress was observed near frequent fatigue crack initiation sites, both around vicinity of middle inner wall of rivet shank and upper 6111T4 sheet.

Failure mode and fatigue behavior of dissimilar laser welds in lap-shear specimens of aluminum and copper sheets are investigated. Quasi-static tests and fatigue tests of laser-welded lap-shear specimens under different load ranges with the load ratio of 0.1 were conducted. Optical micrographs of the welds after the tests were examined to understand the failure modes of the specimens. For the specimens tested under quasi-static loading conditions, the micrograph indicates that the specimen failed through the fusion zone of the aluminum sheet. For the specimens tested under cyclic loading conditions, two types of failure modes were observed under different load ranges. One failure mode has a kinked crack initiating from the interfacial surface between the aluminum and copper sheets and growing into the aluminum fusion zone at an angle close to 90°.

Power electronics products such as inverters and converters involve the use of Thermal Interface Materials (TIMs) between high power packages and a heat exchanger for thermal management. Conventional TIMs such as thermal greases, gels, solders and phase change materials (PCMs) face challenges to meet the need of these products to operate reliably at much higher temperatures. This has driven the development of new TIMs such as Transient Liquid Phase Sintering (TLPS) Conductive Adhesives. TLPS adhesives have been developed for many potential applications due to various advantages like lead free, flux-less and particularly their low temperature processability, which enables the use of heat sensitive components in the design. With all these motivations, a project was launched and completed to assess TLPS adhesives as a unique TIM for high temperature automotive applications due to its high bulk thermal conductivity and metallic joint formation at interfaces.

The development of an optimized heat treatment schedule, with the aim of maximizing strength and relieving tensile residual stress, is important to prevent in-service cylinder distortion in Al alloy engine blocks containing cast-in gray iron liners. However, to effectively optimize the engine block heat treatment schedule, the current solutionizing parameters must be analyzed and compared to the as-cast condition to establish a baseline for residual stress relief. In this study, neutron diffraction was carried out to measure the residual stress along the aluminum cylinder bridge following solution heat treatment. The stresses were measured in the hoop, radial and axial orientations and compared to a previous measured as-cast (TSR) engine block. The results suggest that solution heat treatment using the current production parameters partially relieved tensile residual stress in the Al cylinder bridge, with stress relief being more effective near the bottom of the cylinder.

The demand for light weight vehicles continues to stimulate extensive research into the development of light weight casting alloys and optimization of their manufacturing processes. Of primary relevance are Aluminum (Al) and Magnesium (Mg) based alloys, which have successfully replaced selected iron based castings in automobiles. However, optimization of as-cast microstructure, processing and performance remains a challenge for some Al-based alloys. In this context, placement of chills in castings has been frequently used to locally manipulate the solidification conditions and microstructure of a casting. In this work, the effect of using an active copper chill on the residual strain profile of a sand-cast B319 aluminum alloy was investigated. Wedge-shaped castings were produced with three different cooling conditions: copper plate chill, copper pipe with cooling water and no chill (baseline).

HiSiMo cast irons are frequently used as material for high temperature components in engines as e.g. exhaust manifolds and turbo chargers. These components must withstand severe cyclic mechanical and thermal loads throughout their life cycle. The combination of thermal transients with mechanical load cycles results in a complex evolution of damage, leading to thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) of the material and, after a certain number of loading cycles, to failure of the component. In Part I of the paper, a fracture mechanics model for TMF life prediction was developed based on results of uniaxial tests. In this paper (Part II), the model is formulated for three-dimensional stress states, so that it can be applied in a post-processing step of a finite-element analysis. To obtain reliable stresses and (time dependent plastic) strains in the finite-element calculation, a time and temperature dependent plasticity model is applied which takes non-linear kinematic hardening into account.

Durability of a product is related to three major factors, the load, structure and material. The durability performance of an automotive product is, therefore, not only depended on the structure configuration, but also on the road load dynamic characteristics (profiles and frequency spectrum), and the material fatigue properties as well. Due to the dynamic nature of vehicle loads, one of the major technical challenges, to the durability design optimization of automotive products, is how to define a set of representative road loads, for fidelity and efficiency, based on the measured proving ground durability data of huge size. This paper presents a procedure of processing the proving ground road loads, for vehicle durability design and optimization of automotive products, based on the statistical characteristics evaluation and fatigue damage equivalency techniques.

HiSiMo cast irons are frequently used as material for high temperature components in engines as e.g. exhaust manifolds and turbo chargers. These components must withstand severe cyclic mechanical and thermal loads throughout their service life. The combination of thermal transients with mechanical load cycles results in a complex evolution of damage, leading to thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) of the material and, after a certain number of loading cycles, to failure of the component. In this paper (Part I), the low-cycle fatigue (LCF) and TMF properties of HiSiMo are investigated in uniaxial tests and the damage mechanisms are addressed. On the basis of the experimental results a fatigue life model is developed which is based on elastic, plastic and creep fracture mechanics results of short cracks, so that time and temperature dependent effects on damage are taken into account.

Weld fatigue evaluation using the mesh-insensitive Battelle structural stress method has been applied to fusion welds, resistance spot welds and non-welded components. The effectiveness of the Battelle structural stress procedure has been demonstrated in a series of earlier publications for welded structures with different joint types, plate thicknesses, and loading modes. In this paper, a weld fatigue evaluation procedure using the Battelle structural stress method is proposed for friction stir welds currently being used in the automotive and aerospace industries. The applicability of the Battelle structural stress procedure is demonstrated by comparing fatigue life predictions for friction stir welded specimens to well-documented test data from the literature. Different specimen types, plate thicknesses and loading ratios were analyzed for several aluminum alloys.

Light weight alloys are widely used in the automotive industry in order to meet environmental requirements. Cast magnesium alloys are candidate materials due to their high strength to weight ratio, high stiffness and excellent castability. However, some previously reported anomalous cyclic stress-strain behaviours of magnesium alloys have not been fully investigated especially in LCF characterisation. The main objective of this work was to investigate the cyclic loading-unloading behaviour of high pressure die cast (HPDC) AM60B and AE44 magnesium alloys under uniaxial tension or/and compression and its effect on LCF behaviour. It was found that classical linear stress-strain behaviour, for both AM60B and AE44 alloys, applied only to a very small range of stress beyond which significant pseudo-elastic behaviour was discovered. This affected LCF characterisation and subsequent fatigue analysis processes.

Fatigue test data in finite life region are normally analyzed separately for each stress level because of varying scatters, while another method assuming equal scatters on all levels and thus unifying all data into one model is also welcome for its efficient usage of data. Combining the idea of the two methods, a new method that assumes linear change of scatter according to stress levels is developed in this paper. The algorithm derives from maximum likelihood estimation and general Newton's method. Monte Carlo method is used for theoretical validation and the new method is proved to be correct with the estimations. Finally a set of test data which shows a tendency of trapezoidal data distribution is analyzed and an S-N curve for finite life range is created. The new method has its advantage in certain situations so it's meaningful to add it to the alternatives of fatigue data analysis methods.

Fatigue behavior of aluminum alloys under multiaxial loading was investigated with both cast aluminum A356-T6 and wrought alloy 6063-T6. The dominant multiaxial fatigue crack preferentially nucleates from flaws like porosity and oxide films located near the free surface of the material. In the absence of the flaws, the cracking/debonding of the second phase particles dominates the crack initiation and propagation. The number of cracked/debonded particles increases with the number of cycles, but the damage rate depends on loading paths. Among various loading paths studied, the circle loading path shows the shortest fatigue life due to the development of complex dislocation substructures and severe stress concentration near grain/cell boundaries and second phase particles.

Active regeneration systems for cleaning diesel exhaust can operate at extremely high temperatures up to 1000°C. The extremely high temperatures create a unique challenge for the design of regeneration structural components near their melting temperatures. In this paper, the preparation of the sheet specimens and the test set-up based on induction heating for sheet specimens are first presented. Tensile test data at room temperature, 500, 700, 900 and 1100°C are then presented. The yield strength and tensile strength were observed to decrease with decreasing strain rate in tests conducted at 900 and 1100°C but no strain rate dependence was observed in the elastic properties for tests conducted below 900°C. The stress-life relations for under cyclic loading at 700 and 1100°C with and without hold time are then investigated. The fatigue test data show that the hold time at the maximum stress strongly affects the stress-life relation at high temperatures.

The material demands for advanced technologies have led to development of new generation, light-weight, and multi-functional materials. Aluminum matrix composites (AMCs) have captured considerable attention in aviation, space and automotive industries in recent years. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) are one of the most promising candidate of reinforcements used to improve mechanical strength and hardness of metal matrix composites (MMCs). In this study, dry sliding wear behavior of aluminum (Al) matrix (MMCs) reinforced with different amounts (0, 0.5, 1 and 2 wt%) of CNTs were prepared through ball milling, the process was followed by compaction at room temperature and pressureless sintering at 630 °C under argon atmosphere for 1hr. Wear tests were performed on a pin-on-disk tribometer against SAE 1040 steel counter body under constant load and sliding speed at room temperature.

This study aimed to visualize crack initiation and propagation of rubber at low temperatures. Typical fatigue behavior such as cracking at only the compressed part of rubber products like dustcovers during oscillation tests at ultra-low temperatures have been reported [1]. Rubber products are usually used at temperatures where good rubber elasticity can be obtained. However, in some cases, they are used near glass transition temperatures at which rubber elasticity is poor. Fatigue failures of rubbers generally occur due to existing defects in the rubber material, and rubber tends to fracture easily near glass transition temperatures due to cracking on the surface of the compressed side of the rubber. The observation of the crack initiation process of rubber is difficult at low temperatures because the fracture patterns on rubber disappear when elasticity is recovered at room temperature.