| Abstract |
Increasing awareness by the public opinion about environmental issues, energy and material conservation at all stages of product life (from raw materials to disposal/recycling) is putting the industry in general and the transport industry in particular under increased pressure to reduce CO2 emissions and save energy. Environmental protection and safety will be increasingly influenced by legislation.
The European transport industry is estimated to generate 22% of the carbon dioxide emission. As the car population is expected to grow 40% by the year 2010 new tough targets for reducing emissions by 30% in 2010 are being set by the EU, against the state of the art technologies of 1995. It is generally agreed by the industry that reductions of this size will require a change in current technologies.
Multimaterial technology (sandwich and/or hybrid materials) is becoming increasingly important in new vehicle design. It offers significant opportunities for enhancement of product performance in terms of strength, stiffness and crashworthiness, combined with weight reduction and space saving. Its use still lags far behind steel in the production of cars, buses, coaches and rail and marine applications.
Public service vehicles (buses and coaches) are regarded as primary targets for application of sandwich construction and multimaterials.
Public service vehicles (PSV) play a major role in the transportation industry of both industrialized and developing countries. Although the share of passenger transportation in PSV is relatively small compared to private cars (10% for bus, 5% for train), environmental and energy conservation constraints will lead to an increased demand of PSV, mainly in cases with limited access (like city centres). As travel by car has increased at a steady rate, of 2% per year, whereas bus increased 0,9% and train 0,4%, the EU White Paper on European transport Policy for 2010 establishes, as main goal, a shifting of balance from car to public transport, through the development of high quality and safe transport, eliminating the root causes of pollution - the use of individual transportation
The project will be focused on the development of a novel technology to manufacture bus/coach bodies using load carrying sandwich multimaterial panels that have to meet tough design requirements, such as: high static and dynamic performance, high flexural and torsional stiffness, adequate acoustics, crashworthiness, higher safety for passengers, reduced harm to pedestrians in case of accident, fire safety, corrosion resistance, easy repair characteristics and reduced assembly time.
The main overall objectives of the project are:
- Solving the problem of reducing weight and production costs of land transport vehicles through the development of a technology of modular bus/coach construction, using "all composite" multimaterial load carrying sandwich panels instead of a steel/aluminium spaceframe lined with sheets of different materials (metallic or non-metallic).
- Devise design methodologies that reduce production lead time through reduction of number of components, functional integration, and allowance for dismantling, easy repair and recycling.
- Developing high quality urban transport
- Contribute to the shifting of balance between modes of transport.
- Contribute to improve road safety.
- Contribute to improve quality in the road transport sector. |
