Development of metallic foams for vehicular safety.

• Grant number: 24/16356-3
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Metallurgical Equipment and Facilities
• Principal Investigator: Vera Lucia Arantes
• Grantee: Vera Lucia Arantes
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Haroldo Cavalcanti Pinto ; Jéferson Aparecido Moreto

Abstract

Brazil is among the countries with the highest number of victims, fatal or not, of accidents involving motor vehicle accidents. The total estimated cost of accidents that occurred on federal highways in 2022 was R$ 12.92 billion. Although much has been done to improve the road network and educational campaigns, investingin systems and structures capable of protecting the occupants of motor vehicles in the event of a collision is urgent. The protection capacity is named crashworthiness (CWN).Many studies related to the evaluation of CWN structures have been developed in the last 10 years, but most of them involve only numerical simulations, without considering the influence of processing parameters of the metallic structures or polymeric matrix composites. For applications as passenger protection devices in collision events, the main properties are high energy absorption capacity (EA), specific energy absorption (EA/mass) and magnitude of the peak related to the initial collision, parameters determined in compression tests. It is worth noting that the structures must be light and have recycling potential. This work aims to develop and evaluate tubular structures with the addition of porous metal matrix composite foams, composed of aluminum with the addition of alumina, using aluminum hydroxide as the porogenic agent. (AU)