DYNAMIC PROPERTIES OF ALUMINIUM ALLOYS USED IN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Abstract

Around 20% of CO2 emitted as a result of human activity on Earth comes from transportation. One of the ideas, which lead to diminishing of the greenhouse gases emission, is reducing of fuel consumption. It may be achieved by introducing a new powertrain solutions as well as lowering overall vehicle weight. The reduction of vehicle weight may be obtained by both a new design of part and structures and application of a new materials i.e. aluminium alloys. It has to be emphasised that weight reduction is very important for combustion engine driven vehicles and electric driven vehicles as well. Mass lowering is especially desirable in the case of electric vehicles because they typically have a very narrow operational range usually lower than 200 km. Therefore even small weight reduction decreases energy consumption of EV and as a consequence increases its range, which is a crucial parameter for users. The results presented in this article were focused on high strength aluminium alloys of 6082-T6 and 7075-T6 types. Applying of those materials enables mass lowering of structures up to 50%, maintaining original functionality. Moreover, aluminium alloys may be also used in energy absorbing structures. The goal of tests was to obtain data required in FE analysis. In order to simulate dynamic phenomenon i.e. vehicle crash investigation of the stress-strain curves of alloys were carried out at wide range of strain rates using Hopkinson bar