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Aluminum foams properties, as energy absorbing materials, were experimentally studied. Having as objective the improvement of the vehicle crashworthiness, two different applications were considered. as a filler material for hollow components of the body frame; in this case the objective is to reinforce weak areas of the frame for a better control of the collapse during the crash; as a material to be employed for the manufacturing of energy absorbing structures for the crashworthiness improvement at low speed impact. Some prototypes were manufactured and tested in order to evaluate the potential benefits for both the applications. Good results obtained in both cases pointed out Al-foam as promising material for increasing the passive safety of the vehicle.

An optimisation analysis on an aluminium matrix composites brake drum was carried out in order to obtain a greatly lighter component with equal or better performances than the traditional one. For this reason, a FEM numerical model, fitted on the basis of experimental data, was developed to optimise the design of a brake component in order to meet the required targets; moreover, dynamometer testing allowed to point out the guidelines for the design optimisation. The redesigned MMC drum showed good results, allowing a component weight saving up to 50%.