Abstract
An aluminum intensive vehicle is one of the most potential ways to achieve weight reduction in automotive sheet metal parts. Aluminum alloys present a cost-effective alternative to low-carbon steel, offering a viable solution for weight reduction without compromising on functional requirements for lightweighting of automotive sheet metal parts. However, investigation on formability of Al alloys for critical deep drawing applications is essential to study the feasibility of replacing steel with Aluminum alloys. Therefore, in this paper, formability of two Al-Mg alloys (AA5052 and AA5754) for deep drawing of the fuel tank parts has been investigated. The overall goal from the investigations is to reduce the overall weight of the fuel tank which results in the enhancement of fuel efficiency. The numerical simulation of deep drawing of the fuel tank is carried out using the above two aluminum alloys. The results obtained from the numerical simulations are validated by actual deep drawing of the fuel tank using the Al alloys in the industry. It has been found from the deep drawing simulations showed that the component cannot be successfully formed up to the required depth using 1 mm thick sheets. The experimental press trials validated the simulation results. However, it has been predicted AA5754 can be successfully formed with the required depth by increasing the initial sheet thickness to 2 mm which would yield 15.1% weight saving with respect to the current steel part.
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