Recyclable light metals created by computer modelling
Fine-tuning a computer modelling system to pinpoint bespoke aluminium alloys is the aim of an ambitious £525k partnership between Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology (BCAST) and metals manufacturer Alloyed.
New alloys are normally developed by tweaking what goes into a standard alloy, then using trial and error based on research. It’s a costly and lengthy process that can take years to come up with one that has the right qualities.
Using the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funding, BCAST will perfect Alloyed’s existing Alloys by Design (ABD®) platform to analyse and rank thousands of potential aluminium alloy compositions simultaneously.
The 3-year project is funded by the EPSRC’s Early-Stage Prosperity Partnerships. The BCAST–Alloyed collaboration is one of nine partnerships between universities and industry nationwide granted the investment. It aims to develop new technologies to revolutionise manufacturing, while reducing cost and CO2 emissions.
“The goal is to accelerate the process of design and development of Al alloys for sustainable manufacturing of light metals, mainly for the car industry,” said Hari Babu Nadendla, Professor of Metallurgy and Materials at Brunel University London.
“Allowing automotive engineers to design lightweight structures made from 100% scrap metal will help consolidate the UK’s leading position in low emission vehicle technology and free the supply chain from the uncertainty sourcing ore or primary metal,” he said.
BCAST and Oxford-based Alloyed have worked side by side for the past two years and have already developed new alloys together. Metallurgy experts Alloyed’s physics-based ABD platform lets them rapidly simulate millions of available alloys before making and testing them on site.
“There's a good partnership between us already,” said Prof Nadendla. “We want to develop and refine metallurgical models to make to them more efficient and speed up the discovery of new alloys.”
The team aim to use the modified models to make and test three new alloys – one for making future electric cars, a heat-conducting alloy that can be used to 3D-print parts, and an alloy that can be used to make electronic cars that can be recycled back into new cars. Scrap metal from cars is recycled but not for making high-value car parts, though only currently to produce low-value parts like window panels and wheel alloys.
“Industry is very well established in recycling,” said Prof Nadendla. “But the current way of recycling is not sustainable. We would like to double up and accommodate the end-of-life scrap metal directly as input.”