Simon Jonsson

Background

MSc in Engineering Physics and Electrical Engineering from Luleå University of Technology, Sweden.

Research project: Development of energy-based fracture models to predict crack growth

Since advanced high strength steels (AHSS) were introduced in the 1980's, they have become the backbone of the automotive industry, contributing greatly to reducing the weight of cars as well as improving the passenger safety. The third generation AHSS is currently under development and has shown excellent potential in lightweight design thanks to the improved combination of ductility and fracture resistance.

The european project RFCS CrashTough will study these new advanced high strength steels with the goal to develop lightweight solutions for crash resistant parts in vehicles. Luleå University of Technology is responsible for the development of energy-based fracture models to predict crack growth and energy absorption in these parts. The contribution from the intrinsic material properties to the crash behaviour of final part designs is often hard to extract since the damage mechanisms can be strongly influenced by, for example, welds. Methods for evaluating the crash behaviour at laboratory scale for simple tensile specimens with focus on microstructure effects are thus of great interest. The project consists of both theoretical work and experimental work.

Supervisors

Supervisor: Jörgen Kajberg
Assistant supervisor: Pär Jonsén