WPI's Diana Lados wins CAREER award to augment the use of light metals in transportation

Public release date: 7-Mar-2012
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Contact: Michael Dorsey
mwdorsey@wpi.edu
508-831-5609
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

The 5-year, $525,000 National Science Foundation CAREER Award will fund research aimed at increasing the use of lightweight, fuel-saving metals like aluminum and titanium in cars, trucks, airplanes, boats, and other transportation applications

Worcester, Mass. Diana Lados, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), has received a five-year, $525,000 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct research aimed at increasing the use of lightweight, fuel-saving metals like aluminum, titanium, and magnesium in cars, trucks, airplanes, boats, and other transportation applications. Lados was one of two WPI faculty members to receive the CAREER Award, the most prestigious NSF award for faculty members early in their careers as researchers and educators, this year and is one of 18 current WPI faculty members who have won this honor.

"We congratulate Professor Lados on earning this exceptional award," said WPI Provost Eric Overstrm. "With this grant, she will undertake important work with the potential to bring about significant advances in her field and profound improvements in our quality of life."

Increasing the use of light metal alloys will have important economic and environmental benefits. In cars, for example, each 10 percent reduction in weight results in a 5 to 7 percent increase in fuel economy, along with a concomitant decrease in greenhouse gas emission.

In fact, Lados says, replacing steel and cast iron with lighter metals may be essential if auto makers are to meet the EPA's ambitious new target of increasing the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard for all new cars and light-duty trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

To significantly increase the use of light metals in the transportation sector, Lados says it will be necessary, first, to close a significant gap in our understanding of these metals and their susceptibility to developing cracks that can lead, ultimately, to the failure of metal parts. "Light metals are not currently used as extensively as they could be or to their highest potential in cars and airplanes because of limitations in our fundamental understanding of these materials and in our ability to accurately predict their life," she says. "My goal is to develop new methods and tools that will enable engineers to design materials and structural components with confidence."

The new methods and tools will be built upon on a new, mechanistic understanding of crack formation and propagation in various light metals. Through systematic laboratory studies and the use of analytical methods and computational modeling, Lados will explore how tiny cracks form in the microstructure of a metal part and how those small cracks propagate, turning into larger, even visible cracks and, ultimately, producing metal failure by fatigue. Fatigue is a critical design consideration, especially in structural applications, as more than 90 percent of all mechanical failures are fatigue related.

This research will also bridge a knowledge gap that exists between mechanical engineering and materials science by complementing fracture mechanics approaches (which include tools for predicting the propagation of large cracks) with materials science knowledge (which makes much-needed connections between a metal's micro-/nano-structure and small crack behavior). If unresolved, this gap leads to uncertainties about the true susceptibility of metals to cracking and failure under real-world conditions. This, in turn, leads designers to build excessive safety factors, and, therefore, excess weight, into parts, reducing the fuel-saving benefit of using light metals.

The new tools Lados will develop will enable designers to more accurately predict the lifespan of light metals used in high-integrity, fatigue-critical applications, while also permitting metals producers to develop new alloys and processes designed for current and future applications where light metals are not extensively used today.

To accelerate the verification and adoption of the new methods and tools, Lados will work with the more than 20 members of WPI's Integrative Materials Design Center, which she founded and directs. The membership includes major transportation manufacturers, including Chrysler, Honda, Harley-Davidson, Caterpillar, Boeing, Sikorsky, and Mercury Marine, along with leading metals producers, including Rio Tinto Alcan. "They will take our tools and techniques and apply them with the materials they use every day," Lados says. "In this way, we will be able to validate these developments on a broad spectrum of materials and get them into widespread use more quickly and effectively."

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About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI was one of the nation's first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. WPI's talented faculty work with students on interdisciplinary research that seeks solutions to important and socially relevant problems in fields as diverse as the life sciences and bioengineering, energy, information security, materials processing, and robotics. Students also have the opportunity to make a difference to communities and organizations around the world through the university's innovative Global Perspective Program. There are more than 25 WPI project centers throughout North America and Central America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and Europe.

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Public release date: 7-Mar-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Michael Dorsey
mwdorsey@wpi.edu
508-831-5609
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

The 5-year, $525,000 National Science Foundation CAREER Award will fund research aimed at increasing the use of lightweight, fuel-saving metals like aluminum and titanium in cars, trucks, airplanes, boats, and other transportation applications

Worcester, Mass. Diana Lados, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), has received a five-year, $525,000 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct research aimed at increasing the use of lightweight, fuel-saving metals like aluminum, titanium, and magnesium in cars, trucks, airplanes, boats, and other transportation applications. Lados was one of two WPI faculty members to receive the CAREER Award, the most prestigious NSF award for faculty members early in their careers as researchers and educators, this year and is one of 18 current WPI faculty members who have won this honor.

"We congratulate Professor Lados on earning this exceptional award," said WPI Provost Eric Overstrm. "With this grant, she will undertake important work with the potential to bring about significant advances in her field and profound improvements in our quality of life."

Increasing the use of light metal alloys will have important economic and environmental benefits. In cars, for example, each 10 percent reduction in weight results in a 5 to 7 percent increase in fuel economy, along with a concomitant decrease in greenhouse gas emission.

In fact, Lados says, replacing steel and cast iron with lighter metals may be essential if auto makers are to meet the EPA's ambitious new target of increasing the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard for all new cars and light-duty trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

To significantly increase the use of light metals in the transportation sector, Lados says it will be necessary, first, to close a significant gap in our understanding of these metals and their susceptibility to developing cracks that can lead, ultimately, to the failure of metal parts. "Light metals are not currently used as extensively as they could be or to their highest potential in cars and airplanes because of limitations in our fundamental understanding of these materials and in our ability to accurately predict their life," she says. "My goal is to develop new methods and tools that will enable engineers to design materials and structural components with confidence."

The new methods and tools will be built upon on a new, mechanistic understanding of crack formation and propagation in various light metals. Through systematic laboratory studies and the use of analytical methods and computational modeling, Lados will explore how tiny cracks form in the microstructure of a metal part and how those small cracks propagate, turning into larger, even visible cracks and, ultimately, producing metal failure by fatigue. Fatigue is a critical design consideration, especially in structural applications, as more than 90 percent of all mechanical failures are fatigue related.

This research will also bridge a knowledge gap that exists between mechanical engineering and materials science by complementing fracture mechanics approaches (which include tools for predicting the propagation of large cracks) with materials science knowledge (which makes much-needed connections between a metal's micro-/nano-structure and small crack behavior). If unresolved, this gap leads to uncertainties about the true susceptibility of metals to cracking and failure under real-world conditions. This, in turn, leads designers to build excessive safety factors, and, therefore, excess weight, into parts, reducing the fuel-saving benefit of using light metals.

The new tools Lados will develop will enable designers to more accurately predict the lifespan of light metals used in high-integrity, fatigue-critical applications, while also permitting metals producers to develop new alloys and processes designed for current and future applications where light metals are not extensively used today.

To accelerate the verification and adoption of the new methods and tools, Lados will work with the more than 20 members of WPI's Integrative Materials Design Center, which she founded and directs. The membership includes major transportation manufacturers, including Chrysler, Honda, Harley-Davidson, Caterpillar, Boeing, Sikorsky, and Mercury Marine, along with leading metals producers, including Rio Tinto Alcan. "They will take our tools and techniques and apply them with the materials they use every day," Lados says. "In this way, we will be able to validate these developments on a broad spectrum of materials and get them into widespread use more quickly and effectively."

###

About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI was one of the nation's first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. WPI's talented faculty work with students on interdisciplinary research that seeks solutions to important and socially relevant problems in fields as diverse as the life sciences and bioengineering, energy, information security, materials processing, and robotics. Students also have the opportunity to make a difference to communities and organizations around the world through the university's innovative Global Perspective Program. There are more than 25 WPI project centers throughout North America and Central America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and Europe.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-03/wpi-wdl030712.php

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