Lightweight Materials and Sustainable Manufacturing: The Role of Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME)

Lightweight materials including aluminum, magnesium, titanium, and metal matrix composites are increasingly being used in the transportation and manufacturing industries to reduce energy consumption and carbon footprint. Emerging materials including high entropy alloys, bioresorbable magnesium alloys and densified superwood materials are also promising in new engineering and biomedical applications. Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) is defined as the integration of materials information, captured in computational tools, with engineering product performance analysis and manufacturing-process simulation. This talk presents some examples of lightweight material design and development using CALPHAD-based ICME approach including artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) tools. The presentation will also discuss some of the latest innovations in sustainable casting, extrusion, sheet forming and multi-material manufacturing processes. The development of large thin-wall die casting (giga-casting), using solidification-based ICME tools, will improve the sustainability of transportation manufacturing. Microstructure models for light alloys have been developed based on computational thermodynamics and kinetics, coupled with manufacturing process models. These ICME models are integrated to predict location-specific mechanical properties, based on location-specific microstructure of solidification (casting, welding and additive manufacturing) products. AI/ML tools are used in intelligent control and optimization in manufacturing processes to produce high-quality lightweight products for humanity.

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Biography

Alan Luo is Donald D. Glower Chair in Engineering, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and Professor of Integrated Systems Engineering (Manufacturing) at The Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus, OH, USA. He leads the Lightweight Materials and Manufacturing Research Laboratory and is Director of the Advanced Casting Research Center (ACRC) at OSU. He also serves as a technical leader at The REMADE (Reducing EMbodied-Energy And Decreasing Emissions) Institute. Professor Luo is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), a fellow of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE), and American Society of Metals (ASM). He has 22 patents and more than 340 technical publications on lightweight materials, advanced manufacturing, and integrated computational materials engineering. Prior to joining OSU in 2013, Dr. Luo was a GM Technical Fellow at General Motors Global Research and Development Center (Warren, MI) with 20 years of industrial experience.