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      12-19-2012, 08:28 PM   #103
Evan135
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonjt View Post
An aluminum subframe would be significantly less stiff than a steel one of an otherwise identical design. The steels available to the auto industry for chassis design are far stiffer and far stronger than the available aluminum alloys. Just an fyi.
I appreciate your input but do a little research of young's modulus for different steels and different aluminums with respect to mass and strength. You can correctly design aluminum that is stiffer and lighter the high strength steel. If you could not, no one would use any aluminum as it typically would be more expensive.

The younds modulus for typical aluminum is 10 million psi and steels modulus is 30 million psi. The weight of aluminum is about .1 pound per cubic inch and steel is about .3 pounds per cubic inch. Hence they appear to be relatively equal from a strenth to weight evaluation.

But the reports are that BMW is using aluminum and as I said you can design an alumium structure liughter and stiffer than steel. It is all about the material and how the design uses it. The correct application.

Regardless of the execution on the materials BMW has been reported to be using aluminum to stiffen and reduce weight on the next M3/m4 subframes. The weight loss has not been reported so far to be from light weight carbon fiber plastic composites but the subframes.
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