TECHNICAL: To combat rising fuel prices and increase the fuel economy in transportation vehicles, considerable efforts have been made to understand and enhance the structure-property relationships in magnesium alloys due to their lightweight characteristics. However, magnesium?s low ductility at room temperature reduces its formability and its potential for use in several weight-saving applications. Currently, magnesium sheets are formed at elevated temperatures, dramatically increasing their cost. For the last 100 years, the dominant material used for automotive bodies and closures is cold rolled steel, whose density is three times greater than magnesium but can be manufactured more economically. Current research efforts in magnesium alloys have largely focused on maximizing a limited number of material properties such as strength, corrosion and creep resistance, however, mechanisms for enhancing ductility in magnesium alloys through novel reinforcement structures have remained largely unexplored. The specific research goal of this CAREER project is to increase the room temperature ductility of magnesium alloys through nanoparticle reinforcement. The central hypothesis is that the presence of nanoparticles in the metal matrix can affect magnesium?s grain refining ability and enhance plastic deformation mechanisms. In pursuit of this goal and to test the central hypothesis, the research objectives of this CAREER project are to 1) determine the role and measure the effect of microstructural parameters (grain refinement, nanoparticle size and volume fraction) on plastic deformation mechanisms: twinning and slip; 2) develop new relationships between complex deformation mechanisms and nanoparticle reinforced microstructures of hexagonal closed packed (HCP) metals such as magnesium and 3) formulate and validate a predictive thermodynamics-based model that connects processing parameters to a microstructure optimized for formability. The long-term research goal is to utilize a computational thermodynamics approach to create metal-matrix composites with unique reinforcement structures that can demonstrate radical, transformative properties such as self-healing, biomimetic toughening and low temperature formability. NON-TECHNICAL: The central theme for PI?s education, service and outreach activities is education through coaching. The long-term education goal is to use this coaching methodology to increase the awareness and further the development of a community-centric engineering and science curriculum that fosters solutions that are user-focused as well as technologically significant. To achieve this goal, the education objectives of this project are to 1) expose engineering students, through focused community-centric design projects, to the need for modern and relevant engineering solutions that will meet the needs of both local and global communities; 2) integrate and leverage an established departmental program with a local elementary school program which promotes teacher confidence while improving science competency and 3) create industrial and international collaborations to provide unique networking and learning opportunities for the students and PI. This integrated research and education CAREER project provides solutions to some of the greatest technologically relevant societal issues today: 1) light-weighting vehicles to increase fuel efficiency in order to counter the rapidly rising price of fuel and energy; 2) utilizing nanoparticles to manipulate and control the microstructure of HCP metals for enhanced formability; 3) a science education program for K-12 teachers that provides a multiplicative approach to addressing the science education needs of a greater number of under-served and under-represented students and 4) utilizing an innovative coaching model to educate the next generation of engineers with a broader awareness and appreciation of their impact on local- and global- communities in a technical, analytically-oriented education system.
This project is being jointly funded by the Metallic Materials & Nanostructures program in DMR and the Materials Processing & Manufacturing program in CMMI Division.
