The use of lightweight structures across several industries has become inevitable in today’s world given the ever-rising demand for improved fuel economy and resource efficiency. In the automotive industry, composites, reinforced plastics, and lightweight materials, such as aluminum and magnesium are being adopted by many OEMs at increasing rates to reduce vehicle mass and develop efficient new lightweight designs. Automotive weight reduction with high-strength steel is also witnessing major ongoing efforts to design novel damage-controlled forming processes for a new generation of efficient, lightweight steel components. Although great progress has been made over the past decades in understanding the thermomechanical behavior of these materials, their extensive use as lightweight solutions is still limited due to numerous challenges that play a key role in cost competitiveness. Hence, significant research efforts are still required to fully understand the anisotropic material behavior, failure mechanisms, and, most importantly, the interplay between industrial processing, microstructure development, and the resulting properties. This Special Issue reprint book features concise reports on the current status in the field. The topics discussed herein include areas of manufacturing and processing technologies of materials for lightweight applications, innovative microstructure and process design concepts, and advanced characterization techniques combined with modeling of material’s behavior.

The author of this book presents a general, robust, and easy-to-use method that can handle many design parameters efficiently. Following an introduction, Chapter 1 presents the general concepts of truss layout optimization, starting from topology optimization where structural component sizes and system connectivity are simultaneously optimized. To fully realize the potential of truss layout optimization for the design of lightweight structures, the consideration of geometrical variables is then introduced. Chapter 2 addresses truss geometry and topology optimization by combining mathematical programming and structural mechanics: the structural properties of the optimal solution are used for devising the novel formulation. To avoid singularities arising in optimal configurations, this approach disaggregates the equilibrium equations and fully integrates their basic elements within the optimization formulation. The resulting tool incorporates elastic and plastic design, stress and displacement constraints, as well as self-weight and multiple loading. The inherent slenderness of lightweight structures requires the study of stability issues. As a remedy, Chapter 3 proposes a conceptually simple but efficient method to include local and nodal stability constraints in the formulation. Several numerical examples illustrate the impact of stability considerations on the optimal design. Finally, the investigation on realistic design problems in Chapter 4 confirms the practical applicability of the proposed method. It is shown how we can generate a range of optimal designs by varying design settings.

The rapidly-expanding aerospace industry is a prime developer and user of advanced metallic and composite materials in its many products. This book concentrates on the manufacturing technology necessary to fabricate and assemble these materials into useful and effective structural components. Detailed chapters are dedicated to each key metal or alloy used in the industry, including aluminum, magnesium, beryllium, titanium, high strength steels, and superalloys. In addition the book deals with composites, adhesive bonding and presents the essentials of structural assembly. This book will be an important resource for all those involved in aerospace design and construction, materials science and engineering, as well as for metallurgists and those working in related sectors such as the automotive and mass transport industries. Flake Campbell Jr has over thirty seven years experience in the aerospace industry and is currently Senior Technical Fellow at the Boeing Phantom Works in Missouri, USA.* All major aerospace structural materials covered: metals and composites* Focus on details of manufacture and use* Author has huge experience in aerospace industry* A must-have book for materials engineers, design and structural engineers, metallurgical engineers and manufacturers for the aerospace industry

Lists citations with abstracts for aerospace related reports obtained from world wide sources and announces documents that have recently been entered into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Database.

This open access book provides insight into the implementation of Life Cycle approaches along the entire business value chain, supporting environmental, social and economic sustainability related to the development of industrial technologies, products, services and policies; and the development and management of smart agricultural systems, smart mobility systems, urban infrastructures and energy for the built environment. The book is based on papers presented at the 8th International Life Cycle Management Conference that took place from September 3-6, 2017 in Luxembourg, and which was organized by the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and the University of Luxembourg in the framework of the LCM Conference Series.

4M 2006 - Second International Conference on Multi-Material Micro Manufacture covers the latest state-of-the-art research results from leading European researchers in advanced micro technologies for batch processing of metals, polymers, and ceramics, and the development of new production platforms for micro systems-based products. These contributions are from leading authors at a platform endorsed and funded by the European Union R&D community, as well as leading universities, and independent research and corporate organizations. - Contains authoritative papers that reflect the latest developments in micro technologies and micro systems-based products

Dynamic Deformation, Damage and Fracture in Composite Materials and Structures, Second Edition reviews various aspects of dynamic deformation, damage and fracture, mostly in composite laminates and sandwich structures, and in a broad range of application areas including aerospace, automotive, defense and sports engineering. This book examines low- and high-velocity loading and assesses shock, blast and penetrative events, and has been updated to cover important new developments such as the use of additive manufacturing to produce composites, including fiber-reinforced ones. New microstructural, experimental, theoretical, and numerical studies with advanced tools are included as well. The book also features four new chapters covering topics such as dynamic delamination, dynamic deformation and fracture in 3D-printed composites, ballistic impacts with fragmenting projectiles, and the effect of multiple impacting. - Examines dynamic deformation and fracture of composite materials, covering experimental, analytical and numerical aspects - Features four new chapters covering topics such as dynamic interfacial fracture, fracture in 3D-printed composites, ballistic impacts with fragmenting projectiles, and the effect of multiple impacting - Addresses important application areas such as aerospace, automotive, wind energy, defense and sports