ApplicationLightweightingTechnology2MilitaryVehicles

Lightweighting is a concept well known to structural designers and engineers in all applications areas, from laptops to bicycles to automobiles to buildings and airplanes. Reducing the weight of structures can provide many advantages, including increased energy efficiency, better design, improved usability, and better coupling with new, multifunctional features. At the same time, the methods needed to achieve Lightweighting implementation, are not well understood. It is in this context that the sponsors from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) requested a study to tackle these issues as applied to military vehicles. While Lightweighting is a challenge in commercial structures, the special demands of military vehicles significantly stress the already complex process. In 2010, the DoD, through Reliance 21,1 requested that the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) National Materials and Manufacturing Board conduct a study to assess the current state of lightweighting implementation in land, sea, and air vehicles and recommend ways to improve the use of lightweight materials and solutions. The committee on Benchmarking the Technology and Application of Lightweighting was appointed by the NRC, with committee members chosen for their expertise in materials (including ceramics, polymers, metals, and composites); use of materials in land, sea, and air transport vehicles; systems engineering; and technology assessment, economics, and transfer. The committee’s statement of task is provided in Chapter 1, along with the committee’s interpretation of its task and a description of how it carried out its work. The committee’s work was aided greatly by a number of people. We are grateful to our sponsor, the U.S. DoD’s Reliance 21 Materials and Processing Team, and to the experts who took the time to speak to the committee: Bruno Barthelemy, Gene Camponeschi, Julie Christodoulou, John Deloach, Lisa Prokurat Franks, John Gill, Roger Halle, Robert Hathaway, Charles Kuehmann, James Malas, Suveen Mathaudhu, Mark Middione, Jim Ogonowski, Robert Rapson and Robert Sielski. A list of all presenters, affiliations, and presentations appears in Appendix C. Reliance 21 is a management process developed by the Director of Defense Research and Engineering that involves the Science and Technology (S&T) executives of all the military components under the aegis of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering. All the Department of Defense (DoD) and military service S&T organizations prepare biennial S&T strategic plans that are informed by and harmonized with an overarching DoD S&T strategic plan. My personal thanks go to the entire complement of committee members for their outstanding expertise, limitless enthusiasm, and dedicated efforts in discussing the vast amount of information on Lightweighting that we received and in writing the report. I am particularly grateful to Frank Zok and Brad Cowles for their exceptional dedication and vision at key points in the process. They served as unofficial committee co-chairs, providing leadership to see the report through to the final version. We are all grateful to Madeline Woodruff, a senior program officer in the NRC’s Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, who served tirelessly as study director and assisted the committee in the preparation of its report under the direction of Dennis Chamot, acting director, National Materials and Manufacturing Board. The study benefited greatly from the work and advice of Janice Mehler, associate executive director, Report Review Committee. The report was edited and prepared for publication under the supervision of Susan Maurizi. Special appreciation is expressed to Daniel Talmage, who helped with the preparation of the report during the final stage of the project, and to Laura Toth and Ricky D. Washington for assistance with meeting arrangements and communications with the committee