Novel Concepts to apply magnesium in crash-related vehicle structures

For many applications in the automotive and railway industries the crashworthiness of a structure is an important property which must be addressed by design engineers. Crashworthiness is not a physical property itself, but correlates with the material’s ductility and structural design. Magnesium is known to be a material with lower failure strain than other metallic structural materials. Therefore the use of magnesium in crash-related areas is more challenging compared to steel and aluminum. The DLR-Institute of Vehicle Concepts has developed several solutions for magnesium castings, extrusions and sheet-metal parts capable of bearing crash loads. The paper will show the potentials and properties of different technological approaches. In collaboration with researchers from the University of Windsor and the University of Waterloo, novel technologies for energy absorption, involving cutting deformation, with magnesium were investigated, tested and compared to traditional axial crushing deformation modes. Results of the joint research will be presented.