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In order to meet new environmental regulations (i.e. mass of CO2 rejected in the atmosphere per km), car manufacturers are looking for new solutions to lighten chassis and structural parts in cars. High strength steels formed by hot stamping have proved to be good candidates for achieving better in-use performances together with a lighter structure. In particular, the martensitic stainless steel MaX fulfils the industrial targets for chassis parts in terms of mechanical and fatigue properties. For instance, from a cold formed baseline made of 600 MPa carbon steel, a 50 % mass reduction can be expected with a hot stamped suspension arm made of MaX and included a new clamshell design. However, those parts are often made of a complex assembly of different materials (high strength steels, aluminium and cast iron among others) which are subjected to aggressive environments in service. Therefore galvanic corrosion of those complex assemblies has to be evaluated.

A new Ni-free martensitic stainless steel (MSS) was developed for hot stamped automotive parts, especially in order to design lightweight chassis part. After hot stamping simulation, the material exhibited a 1.2 GPa ultimate tensile strength with a minimum of 10% total elongation, in the as-quenched condition (Q) without any tempering treatment (Q+T). Moreover the material's chemical composition was optimized to improve the ductility at low temperature and during high strain rate mechanical testing. As a result, no brittle fracture in impact testing at −40°C was observed, and a good behavior in crash was recorded. To further assess the material's performances, high cycle fatigue properties of the grade have been characterized including the effects of machining and surface treatments. Results show that the fatigue limits at 2 million cycles for a stress ratio of −1, for both bare and shot peened surface are quite high and in the range of 580 MPa to 640 MPa.

Thermal fatigue of austenitic and ferritic stainless steel grades has been experimentally and numerically investigated. A special test has been developed to determine the thermal fatigue resistance of clamped V-shaped specimens. This test permits to impose thermal cycle by alternating resistance heating and air cooling. The thermal fatigue life of a specimen is expressed as the number of cycles to failure. For a given grade, the fatigue life depends on the maximal and minimal temperature of the cycle, holding time at the maximal temperature and specimen thickness. The advantage of this V-shape test is that it is a simple procedure quite representative of the thermal fatigue process occurring in an exhaust manifold. This test is well suited to perform a study of damage mechanisms and to compare stainless steel grades. Examination of the failed specimens indicated that cracks could be mainly attributed to out-of-phase (OP) thermal fatigue process especially in case of ferritic grades.

The evolution of emission control standards on particulate matter and NOx has led to a significant increase of complexity of the diesel exhaust line which includes catalytic converter, particulate filter and selective catalytic reduction systems. The exhaust line is no longer a component that customers can change easily; its durability has to be studied for longer lifespan and if possible to be predicted. From a corrosion point of view, emission control systems have led to more and more severe conditions for stainless steel material used in the exhaust line. In particular, mufflers are exposed to higher temperature during the regeneration of the particle filter and also to acidification of gas condensates due to high sulphur content that can be found in diesel.

Stainless steel grades are now widely used for automotive exhaust systems, driven by the need to increase their durability and to reduce their weight. Exhaust Manifolds are subjected to more severe conditions and peak gas temperatures of 1000°C could be reached in new downsized gasoline engines. Also, longer guaranties are now required. This evolution is a direct consequence of the effort to decrease automotive pollutant emissions with new environmental regulations throughout the world. The paper will deal with the thermal-mechanical fatigue (TMF) damage prediction of fabricated automotive exhaust manifold fixed to the engine. A dedicated lifespan prediction approach was created based on elasto-viscoplastic behavior and damage models identification from different thermal-mechanical tests.

One way to respect the Euro 5 depollution norm is the downsizing of the engine, which leads to more severe in-use operating conditions especially an increase of the exhaust gas temperature. Consequently, the hot part of the exhaust system, i.e., from manifold to the catalytic converter, could be subjected to maximal temperature up to 1000°C. Moreover, an improved durability and longer life guaranties are also required for such parts. In this context, a new ferritic stainless steel grade has been developed, named K44X (AISI 444, EN 1.4521), which fulfills these new specifications and that could be applied for both fabricated manifold and turbocharger shells. The K44X, with a chromium content of 19% (weight), an addition of 2% molybdenum and 0.6% of niobium, offers excellent high temperature properties like cyclic oxidation, creep and thermal fatigue resistance, a low thermal expansion coefficient.

Due to the evolution of emission control standards, new pollution control systems will be necessarily used for off-road vehicles and trucks exhaust systems and in the near future for passenger cars. Indeed, the will to reduce NOx emission through Euro 5 (2009) and then to Euro 6 (2014) and American EPA Tier 4 (2008-2015) imposes the implementation of a new after-treatment system within the exhaust line. One of the most promising technologies takes advantage of the reduction feature of ammonia (NH₃) on NOx. This system called Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) couldn't be developed by storing directly ammonia as a reduction agent on the vehicle due to its high toxicity and flammability. It is why urea is used as an ammonia generator through thermolysis reaction.

The paper deals with the thermal mechanical fatigue (TMF) of stainless steels used for exhaust manifolds. A thermal fatigue test on V-shape specimen was early developed at Ugine & Alz to simulate such thermal and mechanical conditions. The examination of failed specimens indicates that cracks could be generally attributed to out-of-phase TMF. However, in specific cases, in-phase TMF may be dominant. For instance, manifolds made of austenitic stainless steel grades usually fail by in-phase TMF. Based on finite element calculation of the V-shape test, a damage criterion is proposed for out-of-phase TMF, which correlates the amplitude of the viscoplastic strain, the maximal temperature, the dwell time during the thermal cycle and the number of cycles to failure.

One of the most important preoccupation of car manufacturers is to reduce emissions and hence to reduce weight of cars. One of the outstanding materials able to reduce weight of cars and at the same time keeping the same crash absorption and hence safety, is austenitic steel. Austenitic stainless steels are used in crash relevants parts of cars. Moreover, designers can use their very good corrosion resistance and their well known surface aspect for structural visible parts like wheels, cross members, roof panel or tailgates. In this paper, stainless steels for automotive use are presented in detail. First, their chemical composition and tensile properties are explained. Then, the U&A model for forming and crash is described. Using this model, stainless steels can be engineered into parts and thus stainless can be considered as a workable and predictable material for the automotive industry.

LPG is today an alternative and ecological fuel energy for automotive. Conventional LPG tanks show their limits and the development of new LPG tanks faces some difficulties: small and complicated shapes in the vehicles are available to store LPG tanks and the weight of conventional LPG tanks remains high. Based on a new LPG concept patented by Giat Industries, Ugine&ALZ proposed the usage of a high strength stainless steel. This new concept is based on internal reinforcing wells and on the use of high-strength stainless steel. Therefore the tank can have various shapes exactly adapted to the available space in the vehicle. As a consequence the space in the vehicle is optimised. Moreover using high-strength stainless steel enables to reduce the weight of the tank considerably. This article describes this new LPG tank concept and its main advantages: LPG storage capacity, lightness, burst pressure resistance, crash resistance…

The increasing use of ferritic stainless steels (AISI 409, 439, 436 and 441) in automotive exhaust systems, especially for manifolds and catalytic converter canning, has led the authors to develop a new ferritic welding wire, designated 430LNb. This new material is recommended for the GMAW and GTAW processes and provides better metallurgical compatibility with the ferritic base metals, in terms of both thermal expansion and microstructure. The composition of the new welding wire has been adjusted in order to guarantee an entirely ferritic structure in the welds of ferritic sheet materials, together with good resistance of the welds to both wet corrosion and high temperature oxidation, corresponding to the conditions encountered respectively in the colder and hotter parts of the exhaust line. This is achieved by limitation of the C (<0.02%) and N (<0.02%) contents, stabilisation with Nb, such that Nb > 0.05 + 7 (C + N) and Nb < 0.5%, and a Cr content of 17.8-18.8%.