Summary

The Lab is studying non-ferrous-based materials that have the potential for performance comparable to steels but with significantly reduced weight. The long-term goal of this project is to help General Motors to develop lightweight materials with improved strength and formability.

Efforts are currently concentrated in three areas: (i) modeling the nanoscale interaction of dislocations with precipitates and solute atoms in 6000-series and 5000-series aluminum alloys; (ii)  microstructure-based modeling of constitutive behavior and texture evolution in single crystal and polycrystalline aluminum during low-temperature forming; and (iii) studying microstructural evolution in aluminum alloys that can be shaped using General Motors new Quick Plastic Forming process.

  Alloying is one of the most effective means of improving the performance of metals.  It is therefore of great interest to  predict quantitatively the influence of a material's chemical composition on its properties.   To this end, the lab is using atomistic and meso-scale simulations to study the effects of precipitates and solid solution atoms in aluminum - magnesium alloys.
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  Deformation induced texture plays a central role in governing the low-temperature formability of aluminum and its alloys.  Guided by experiments and the results of nanoscale simulations, the lab is developing new constitutive equations for single crystal aluminum, and is using them to model deformation and texture evolution in aluminum parts during forming.
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Quick Plastic Forming is a new manufacturing process used to make complex parts.   QPF is a high-temperature process similar to superplastic forming,   except that deformation takes place at strain rates that are at the extreme upper limit of the superplastic regime.  The lab is studying the mechanisms of deformation during quick plastic forming, with a view to developing alloys that can be shaped faster and at lower temperatures.
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