Innovative materials in future design of lightweight and sustainable products

Mechatronic and product innovation engineering

Host Department
Department of Management and Engineering

Research Topic A

Abstract of the proposed UNIPhD research project

Globally we are growing and developing at an uncontrolled speed and in the process our ecology
is highly imbalanced and threatened. Energy demands are continuously rising, which ultimately
results in increasing inequality in our socio-economic sectors. It is widely acknowledged that many societies collapsed due to their inability to adapt the conditions brought by unsustainable practices. Therefore, at this critical juncture, innovative metallic alloys and improved shaping processes, coupled with light-weight design concepts can play vital role towards rectification and to ensure sustainability mobility. Lightweight materials are considered as prime choices for manufacturing vehicle bodies in aviation, aerospace, shipbuilding, and railway transportation sector. Such selection are aimed to achieve higher energy efficiency and reduce the CO2 emissions phenomena. During the transition from fossil fuel to clean electricity generation; weight reduction of vehicles could produce greater cumulative emissions savings by 2050 than those obtained by the electrification alone. While taking into account the reliableness of weight reduction and vehicle structure, it appears to be a valid approach to replace conventional heavy weight structures with the lighter ones. That’s why selection of materials with the expected, application-dependent characteristics constitutes a very important point in any industrial application. While underlying factors for dependence of automobile sector, aluminum (Al) alloys are considered as the most suitable choice for producing effective engineering solutions due to their low densities. These alloys have a high strength/weight ratio, good formability, excellent combination of castability and mechanical properties which together with an excellent corrosion resistance make them very appropriate for a large variety of applications. The aim of proposed work will be to investigate optimization of Al based innovative metallic alloys and improved shaping processes, coupled with light-weight design concepts towards rectification and to ensure sustainability mobility. Moreover, to achieve technological innovations and continuous optimization of existing process flows that are essential to ensure resource-savings and future competitiveness, especially in small and medium sized businesses.

Short Bio

Osama Asghar did his MS in Materials Science & Engineering from Xian Jiaotong University, China. He graduated in Materials Science & Engineering from Institute of Space Technology, Pakistan. He served as Inspection Engineer at National Centre for Failure Analysis (NCFA), Pakistan where he has been intimately involved in various onsite nondestructive inspection and replica metallography in multiple oil & gas sectors. His key areas of research interest include surface engineering, alloy development, materials characterization, destructive & nondestructive testing, onsite replica metallography and root cause failure analysis.