Expected outcomes

• Improved simulation capabilities in Industry: This will be the prime outcome of the project. The end-users (car makers) will be able to significantly improve the degree of integration in the fields of metallurgy, processing, stress analysis and optimisation, by means of an efficient "horizontal" software tool for the design of cast aluminium components. The results will also provide important input for crash simulations.
• Improved material databases: The development of standardised procedures to evaluate material defects will encompass front-loading methods for casting processes. Automotive partners and industry in general will be able to effectively evaluate new materials.
• A design methodology will bring the foundry process and the potential of materials closer to the designer, leading to a more reliable optimized design in a shorter lead-time.
• Software integration between casting simulation codes and structural/crash analysis codes: such integration will provide a powerful tool for component design. The forecasting of the mechanical characteristics of aluminium will result in a better exploitation of materials, and increased stiffness and fatigue resistance coupled with weight reduction. The latter will lead to improved fuel efficiency, the reduction of emissions, including that of CO2.
• A software package for the optimisation of casting parameters: the set-up of casting process parameters greatly influences the mechanical characteristics of the end component, and have a substantial impact on production costs. By using automated and numerical optimisation, expensive and time consuming "trial and error" reiterations are reduced to the minimum, or even eliminated.
• The creation of an industrial Liquid HIP process by including it in an integrated design chain: the HIP process produces aluminium castings that are especially pure and free from defects. The huge benefits of aluminium casting characteristics of HIP are well known, however the process has not been widely adopted on a large scale. Liquid HIP is the means to bring HIP to mass production, bringing with it the additional advantage of improved process safety.