Highly strong nanostructured metals are being employed in car manufacturing in order to develop light weight cars that can withstand collisions in order to ensure prevention of any fatal accidents.
Smaller metal grains act as stronger metals
A doctoral student from the Materials Research division at Risø DTU has identified a phenomenon that creates opportunity for nanostructured metals to be used in more practical applications. This discovery was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society journal.
The doctoral student, Tianbo Yu carried out a research work to identify the stability of nanostructured metals. Although these nanometals are robust by nature, they have a tendency to become soft at lower temperatures. This is because microscopic metal grains of nanometals are unstable,
According to the discovery made by Tianbo Yu, the fine structure of nanometals comprises several tiny metal grains. Even at room temperatures, the boundaries present between the microscopic metal grains tend to move. Simultaneously, the structure tends to become more coarse and the nanometal gradually loses its strength. Yu showed that it is possible to lock the grains’ boundaries in the presence of tiny particles. This enables the solution to be technologically viable and this has led the way to manufacturing car components using nanometals.
Head of the Materials Research Division, Dorte Juul Jensen stated that the organization is collaborating with a Danish consulting engineering firm as well as a Danish firm to develop light and robust aluminum materials. These materials can be used in light-weight vehicles to ensure that deformation does not occur during collision.
Source: http://www.dtu.dk/english