Innovative concepts for the usage of veneer-based hybrid materials in vehicle structures

An important factor to meet the climate protection goals in the rail and automotive industry is vehicle light-weighting. Multimaterials and hybrid-materials are effective approaches to de-velop lighter structures while still exceeding safety standards. In the context of lightweighting, the usage of wood was not properly considered in recent years. In this regard, wood has high potential because its specific properties are comparable to conventional lightweight materials like aluminum and magnesium. Further advantages of wood are its low price, thermal and acoustic insulation and the potential to reduce the CO2 emissions in the production process. At the Institute of Vehicle Concepts of the German Aerospace Center in cooperation with part-ners from research institutes and companies, different approaches were developed to use wood for car and train structures. The goal was to investigate the use of veneer-based multi-material systems for current and future vehicle structures. For this purpose, various concepts were devel-oped, ranging from the use of the material to reinforce thin sheet metals to structural components, which are produced completely from wood and are only reinforced locally. Through the hybridization of wood with aluminum and steel, it was possible to not only develop light but also sustainable solutions that use resources efficiently and can be recycled at the end of life. In order to evaluate the proposed solutions, generic components were derived, manufactured and tested. So it was possible to answer critical questions like the mechanical performance and the behavior of the hybrid material at high humidity and temperature, and to compare the re-sults against the state of the art. The talk gives an overview over the different design and evaluation approaches chosen and illustrates the high potential of veneer based materials for vehicle structures.