Nowadays, in the automotive sector, there are two main tendencies. One is the increase in safety and the other is the reduction of emissions.
There are two main ways to improve the first tendency: design and mass reduction in the vehicle.
To improve the second tendency there are also two main ways: the development of more efficient engines and mass reduction.
This means that both tendencies have something in common. To solve the mass reduction it is important to work on the design in order to obtain lighter components with the same functionality. At the same time, that is also necessary to use new materials with less density and higher properties.
As it is shown in the picture, all the components are time variable loaded, so it is important to know the fatigue behaviour of the different materials in order to obtain efficient designs.