Research On Ecological Evaluation Of Lightweight Vehicles

China’s automobile production and sales scale has been ranked first in the world for nine consecutive years.The huge scale of automobile production and sales has contributed greatly to the development of the national economy,but it has also had a serious impact on resources and the environment,leading to increasi ngly stringent requirements for energy-saving and emission reduction of automotive products.The lightweighting of automobiles has become an important means for energy conservation and emission reduction of automobile companies.Firstly,this paper summarizes the status quo of automotive industry development,life cycle assessment methods and domestic and foreign vehicle life cycle assessment tools,and introduces the dynamic research of lightweight automotive ecological evaluation.Then,taking the front-end module of the vehicle as the research object,the eco-evaluation of the pure steel front-end module before lightweighting and the aluminum steel front-end module after lightweighting is carried out from the perspective of the entire automobile life cycle.Use the following evaluation steps:(1)Constructing a ecological assessment models of ore materials(O)and fossil energy(E)consumption(collectively referred to as resource consumption)and environmental discharge(D)for the four stages as raw material acquisition,production,operation,and end-of-life recycling,named the "OED" evaluation model,in order to compare the resource consumption and environmental impacts of the two phases of the front-end modules of the two scenarios in the entire life cycle.(2)The calculation model was built by using GaBi software(developed by German PE company)to quantify and calculate the resource consumption and environmental impact values of the two phases of the front-end modules of the two programs.(3)The characterization,normalization,and weighted calculations are performed on the calculation results to compare and analyze the resource consumption and environmental impact of the two design schemes of the front-end module.The results show: At the manufacturing stage,the resource and environmental impact of the aluminum steel scheme is greater than that of the pure steel scheme;In the operational using and scrapping and recycling stage,the aluminum and steel scheme has a better resource and environmental impact than the steel scheme;From the perspective of the whole life cycle,the consumption of ore material of the front-end module of aluminum steel is greater than that of the front-end module of pure steel,and its fossil energy consumption and environmental impact are better than that of the steel front-end module.Finally,suggestions for improving the lightweight design of the front-end module of the vehicle are proposed,and the prospects for the lightweight ecological design of the automotive products are also presented.Only by constructing the evaluation model and evaluation system from the perspective of the entire life cycle and comprehensively examining the resource consumption and environmental impact before and after the automobile lightweighting can we weigh the pros and cons and find the optimal method for lightweight ecological design.