D. Ray Johnson

Heavy Vehicle Propulsion Materials: Recent Progress and Future Plans

The Heavy Vehicle Propulsion Materials Program provides enabling materials technology for the U.S. DOE Office of Heavy Vehicle Technologies (OHVT). The technical agenda for the program is based on an industry assessment and the technology roadmap for the OHVT. A five-year program plan was published in 2000. Major efforts in the program are materials for diesel engine fuel systems, exhaust aftertreatment, and air handling. Additional efforts include diesel engine valve-train materials, structural components, and thermal management. Advanced materials, including high-temperature metal alloys, intermetallics, cermets, ceramics, amorphous materials, metal- and ceramic-matrix composites, and coatings, are investigated for critical engine applications. Selected technical issues and planned and ongoing projects as well as brief summaries of several technical highlights are given.

Heavy Vehicle Propulsion Materials Program

The objective of the Heavy Vehicle Propulsion Materials Program is to develop the enabling materials technology for the clean, high-efficiency diesel truck engines of the future. The development of cleaner, higher-efficiency diesel engines imposes greater mechanical, thermal, and tribological demands on materials of construction. Often the enabling technology for a new engine component is the material from which the part can be made. The Heavy Vehicle Propulsion Materials Program is a partnership between the Department of Energy (DOE), and the diesel engine companies in the United States, materials suppliers, national laboratories, and universities. A comprehensive research and development program has been developed to meet the enabling materials requirements for the diesel engines of the future. Advanced materials, including high-temperature metal alloys, intermetallics, cermets, ceramics, amorphous materials, metal- and ceramic-matrix composites, and coatings, are investigated for critical engine applications.

Heavy Vehicle Propulsion Materials Program: Progress and Highlights

The Heavy Vehicle Propulsion Materials Program was begun in 1997 to support the enabling materials needs of the DOE Office of Heavy Vehicle Technologies (OHVT). The technical agenda for the program grew out of the technology roadmap for the OHVT and includes efforts in materials for: fuel systems, exhaust aftertreatment, valve train, air handling, structural components, electrochemical propulsion, natural gas storage, and thermal management. A five-year program plan was written in early 2000, following a stakeholders workshop. The technical issues and planned and ongoing projects are discussed. Brief summaries of several technical highlights are given.

The Ceramic Technology Project: Ten years of progress

The Ceramic Technology Project was initiated in 1983 for the purpose of developing highly reliable structural ceramics for applications in advanced heat engines, such as the automotive gas turbines and advanced heavy duty diesel engines. The reliability problem was determined to be a result of uncontrolled populations of processing flaws in the brittle, flaw-sensitive materials, along with microstructural features, such as grain boundary phases, that contribute to time dependent strength reduction in service at high temperatures. The approach taken to develop high reliability ceramics included the development of tougher materials with greater tolerance to microstructural flaws, the development of advanced processing technology to minimize the size and number of flaws, and the development of mechanical testing methodology and the characterization of time dependent mechanical behavior, leading to a life prediction methodology for structural ceramics.