Investigation of buckling and fatigue behavior of various aluminium based metal composite materials

Control Arms are the components which connect chassis to wheel and transmit the loads and movement from one component to the other. They are generally made of aluminium or steel. An ideal control arm should carry only compression and tension loads and have a certain stiffness. However, in some cases control arms can have bended geometries when there is limited space in the vehicle package which is defined by auto makers. In such cases, control arms need thicker sections and high stiffness in order to mechanically resist as they are subjected to bending stresses. When limited space availability and auto makers' low-weight targets are considered, it is visible that designing thicker components is not always feasible. Control arms are subjected to static and dynamic loads during their lifetime. These loads can deform the control arms at a certain load cycle (fatigue) or deform them suddenly (buckling) which poses a serious threat to driving safety. Recent increases in loads in which control arms are subjected, are not complying with the low-weight design targets expected by auto makers. In this study, buckling behaviour of control arms which have been produced with Si particle reinforced aluminium based metal composite material have been investigated and compared with the performance of control arms that are produced with standard aluminium alloy. It was observed that Si particle reinforcement increased the modulus of elasticity of the material by 7%. Effects of increased modulus of elasticity on buckling behaviour have also been investigated.