Advanced Concepts for Light Weightingthrough Materials, Design and Manufacturing

WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHTS

Thursday, 5th September 2019; Auditorium, Research Park, IIT Madras, Chennai

Inaugural Session (10:00-10:30) :

The event was inaugurated by Prof Bhaskar

Ramamurthi (Director- IIT Madras) and Prof. Iain

Martin (Vice Chancellor – Deakin University), In

their addresses they touched upon the

importance f this topic and that the thriving

partnership already established between Deakin

and IIT Madras, covering Materials, Design and

Manufacturing is well poised to deliver viable

and cutting edge solutions to accomplish the

same. This was echoed by Dr Peter Hogdson, VP

Industrialization and innovation from Deakin

University. Dr. V. Sumantran, CEO Celerys

Technologies and former VP, R&D Tata Motors,

touched upon the importance of Light-weighting

to improve efficiency of current vehicle and

serve as a differentiator for Electric Vehicles.

Prof B.S. Murty, Director IIT Hyderabad touched

upon the successful collaboration between IITM

and Deakin in the fields of Material and

Manufacturing with several joint PhDs and

industry partnerships. Dr. K. Anand, Chief

Manager Deakin-IITM CoE pointed out that over

50 attendees were participating in the workshop

with over 50 students who had travelled long

distances to attend this workshop.

Deakin-IITM Centre of Excellence in Advanced Materials and Manufacturing

The session started with an excellent invocation from Dr. V. Shankar, VP-R&D Mahindra

calling for the spirit of cooperation to solve a complex topic such as Light Weighting. Dr.

Sathya Prasad – VP R&D Ashok Leyland addressed the overall challenges being faced by

the commercial vehicle industry, with opportunities to improve payload and efficiency

through light weighting. While truck design has reached significant levels of maturity

there were opportunities to lean design from nature, such as trees with roots buttressed

to protect from bending forces only facing on the wind direction which meant

conservation of biomass. Similar design concepts could be explored in vehicles. Using

Austempered Ductile Iron instead of steel is another opportunity which is not yet

completely explored. The use of Al based alloys and higher strength steels needed to be

explored further.

TECHNICAL SESSIONS (10:45 TO 17:15)

Light Weighting through Materials and Design Innovations – Morning

Session (10:45 to 13:00)

Dr. Sanjay Sondhi touched upon reducing weight through the design of strongermaterial. GE has continuously improved thrust to weight ratio of its engines throughhigher performance of components, which are largely enabled by the use of improvedmaterials. But the use of additive manufacturing could simplify assembly of complexparts, reducing part count, and eliminating fasteners while using more efficiencytopologies. But this required understanding the required understanding the interplaybetween alloy chemistry, its weldability, and processing envelopes achievable throughlaser to eliminate cracking. Dr. Bernard Rolfe talked about optimized deformationprocessing which allows one to use thinner wall sections without defects – thusreducing weight. The use of process simulation tools would also allow for working withlimited ductility systems such as Magnesium based alloys which are the lightest of thealloys used. Prof B.S. Murty in his final talk of the morning session gave outstandingexamples of higher strength Al based alloys that can disrupt the space that both steeland Titanium based alloys occupy in terms of strength and strength to weight ratios.These alloys could be produced by both casting and forging processes.

(In Row) Dr. V. Shankar, Dr. V. Sathya Prasad, Dr. Sanjay Sondhi, Dr. Bernard Rolfe & Dr. B.S. Murty

Dr. Palaniappan Ramu covered aspects of optimization, where efficient design of

experiments covering different light weighting concepts could be treated as independent

and controllable variables which would drive key light weighting properties – which is the

dependent variable. Statistical methods can be used to hone in on the significant

variables, postulate a regression function which could be the starting point for

optimization. These concepts are particularly valuable when one is considering complex

subassemblies where different requirements have to be met, including strength, stiffness,

vibration dynamics and aero loads. Dr. K. Srirarm gave excellent examples of the use of

composite materials to make lighter weight structures which could also reduce loading on

the rotor which often becomes a design limited. He gave examples from both wind turbine

ands and aircraft engines.

Dr. T.V.L.N Rao VP R&D Sundaram Clayton gave excellent examples of light weighting

challenges in the casting industry and how semi-solid (thixotropic processes) are now being

commercially in India to accomplish light weight shapes. Dr. Phani Kumar walked us

through alloy design tools which could tailor alloy chemistry and process methods to

achieve specific strength goals, thus allowing us to design lighter weight structures from

the computer. Dr. Xie Wu gave excellent insight into ligh weight material, and nice

explanation to the participant questions. The sessions concluded with a scholarly

description of additive methods for traditionally light weight high strength alloy systems

such as Titanium based while managing defects, and component integrity.

Light Weighting through Materials and Design Innovations – Afternoon

Session (14:00 to 15:30) :

Dr. Ramu

Dr. Xie WuDr. G. Phanikumar

Dr. TVLN Rao

Dr. K. Sriram

Mr. Tito Vemuri gave an excellent introduction to Triz

based tools. Triz I a method to that looks at a

subsystem in a holistic manner. It forces one to look

at the sub assembly from the perspective of the

functions performed, gets one to question what are

the essential and unwanted functions, which features

are required, neutral or harmful and can be trimmed.

The trimmed design is then interrogated from the

perspective of viability – as to the reason the feature

is desired but is not viable because of a physics based

reason. Once the proposed invention is broken into

what is desired and why is that it cannot be

implemented (contradiction), the Triz based tool

summons 40 inventive principles, gleaned from all the

historical patents, to see if one of them could be used

to break the deadlock and propose a new innovation.

Triz tools are not a substitute for engineering

expertise but when combined with domain

knowledge, such techniques can bring people from

different disciplines and co-create innovation

Final Session – forging design, materials and manufacturing partnership

through innovation tools 15:45 to 17:15)

Contact:Dr. K. AnandResearch ManagerDeakin-IITM Centre of ExcellenceIITM Research Park, Chennai, 600036+91-9880877633, cmdeakin-iitm@imail.iitm.ac.inwww. https://deakiniitmcoe.iitm.ac.in/

LET US SOLVE IT, TOGETHER-BETTER;