UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO PROFILE
In just half a century, the University of Waterloo, located at the heart of Canada’s technology hub, has become a leading comprehensive university with more than 36,000 full- and part-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs.
Consistently ranked Canada’s most innovative university, Waterloo is home to advanced research and teaching in science and engineering, mathematics and computer science, health, environment, arts and social sciences. From quantum computing and nanotechnology to clinical psychology and health sciences research, Waterloo brings ideas and brilliant minds together, inspiring innovations with real impact today and in the future.
As home to the world's largest post-secondary co-operative education program, Waterloo embraces its connections to the world and encourages enterprising partnerships in learning, research, and commercialization. With campuses and education centres on four continents, and academic partnerships spanning the globe, Waterloo is shaping the future of the planet.
Find out more about the University of Waterloo at https://uwaterloo.ca/about/who-we-are/waterloo-facts.
Background
The Forming and Crash Laboratory is part of the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department of the University of Waterloo. The Group’s research activities encompass structural crash worthiness, fracture characterization, sheet forming for auto weight reduction and joint characterization. The Group’s facilities include several electromechanical and hydraulic test frames and a large-scale crash sled facility, amongst other key infrastructure.
The 2012 U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) targets mandating a 50% cut in fuel consumption by 2025 have supercharged research and innovation within the automotive industry. To reach these targets without compromising occupant safety, next generation materials such as ultra-high strength steels, high-strength aluminum and magnesium alloys are being rapidly developed and implemented into a lightweight multi-material vehicle architecture. However, the industrial application of advanced materials systems has been limited by the inability to accurately predict their complex fracture behaviour in forming and crash simulations. The proposed precision electromechanical test frame will be used to perform the fracture characterization experiments needed to develop new failure models for lightweight material systems.
The budget for the project is estimated at $100,000.00 CAD, plus HST.
This Request for Proposal is issued with funding in part from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and should follow all CFI Guidelines and Policies – please refer to pages 3 and 4 of the RFP document.
