Custom Material Properties for Automotive Applications

Advanced materials are significant to the improvement of vehicle fuel economy. Lighter materials are easier to accelerate than heavier materials, requiring smaller amounts of energy, therefore, lightweight materials have great potential to improve the efficiency of vehicles. Based on this motivation, four materials were selected: titanium alloys, magnesium alloys, and aluminum alloys respectively. All these materials can reduce the car's weight because their densities are lower than traditional materials such as cast Iron. However, they have different material properties. In this paper, the quantity of ultimate stress is utilized to compare the specific strength of different materials after they experience heat treatment, and the appearance of cracks can be seen as an important indicator to compare the fatigue life of various materials. Other effective methods are also mentioned in this paper. For example, aluminum alloys are widely used in car engines. Yet, it does not have high toughness at high temperatures. Thus, scandium can be added to this alloy to increase its heat resistance and heat toughness. As for magnesium alloys, PLA coatings can resist the appearance of cracks so that fatigue life can be exceeded. The subsequent ageing treatment can increase the tensile strength of this material. Finally, changing the lattice structure of titanium can increase the specific strength and fatigue life simultaneously.