IIT Madras researchers develop alloy that may replace steel, aluminium in automobile industry

A group at IIT Madras have developed high-performance magnesium alloy which might replace steel and aluminium used in the automobile industry.

A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has claimed that they have developed high-performance magnesium allow that can replace steel and aluminium in the automobile industry.

In a statement released by the institute, IIT M said that its researchers in collaboration with the University of North Texas and US Army Research Laboratory Teams have developed an engineered magnesium alloy.

According to the group, the current industrial application of wrought magnesium alloys in structural components is very limited due to their poor moderate or low strength, poor ductility, yield strength asymmetry and lack of high strain rate superplasticity despite their density being two-third of aluminium and one-quarter of steel.

With vehicular emissions alone contributing 27 per cent of total carbon dioxide emissions, countries around the world are working on finding a way out to reduce them. A major focus has been in lowering down the carbon footprint of vehicles by making use of light-weight material for the production of their body. Light-weight vehicles take less energy to run as compared to the heavy-weight vehicles. This is one of the strategy to increase the vehicle's energy-efficiency.

The research team has made headway in solving this challenging problem by formulating a magnesium alloy with almost zero yield asymmetry and high ductility. The new engineered alloy is strong, highly ductile and its superplasticity is achieved at higher strain-rates which reduces overall manufacturing time, effort and costs. In addition to this, it is also lightweight, which helps lower the carbon footprint of vehicles. Lightweight vehicles need lesser fuel to run and are therefore more fuel-efficient.

Dr Sushanta Kumar Panigrahi, who was part of the collaborative research project from IIT-M, said, "In view of the compelling needs for economical usage of scarce energy resources and ever-stricter control over emissions to lower environmental impact, automotive and aerospace industries are searching for alternative advanced light-weight structural materials to existing conventional materials. 

"Being one of the lightest and energy-efficient structural materials, magnesium alloys are potential candidates to replace steel and aluminium alloys in automotive and aerospace components since their density is two-thirds of aluminium and one-quarter of steel," he added.