DIGI4Circular

Data-Driven and Physics-Based Product Development Supporting a Circular Economy

Digi4Circular is a new project funded by Horizon Europe commenced on December 4, 2024, in Paderborn, Germany. The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive digital platform that incorporates circular economy principles into product development. This will facilitate the creation of sustainable and efficient automotive components by optimizing resource utilization, reducing waste, and encouraging the use of secondary aluminum. The consortium consists of 11 partners, including experts from research organizations and industry across 6 European countries. Digi4Circular is set to last for 3.5 years while exploiting the knowledge of world-class experts and researchers.

Initial situation and project aim

The project focuses on the automotive sector, which accounts for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions and consumes considerable raw materials. By encouraging the use of secondary aluminum and optimizing resource requirements, the project seeks to minimize waste and emissions. The platform will enable the smooth integration of circularity principles into product development, addressing information gaps and regulatory challenges.

Impact

The Digi4Circular project aims to deliver significant environmental, economic, and technological benefits by transforming the way products are designed, manufactured, and managed throughout their life cycle. By providing a circular economy, the project aims to lower emissions, minimize waste and promote sustainable development.

Environmental Benefits: Minimizing the environmental impact of aluminium casting in the automotive industry by promoting the use of secondary aluminium and optimizing end-of-life scenarios.
Innovative Solutions: Offers advanced computational methods and digital tools for developing sustainable products.
Data-Driven Decisions: Supports informed decision-making through the integration of comprehensive life cycle data.

Fraunhofer LBF contributes its expertise in cyclic testing and cyclic material characterization to develop an accelerated fatigue characterization method for evaluating aluminum materials used in the material design segment. In particular, a methodology for the accelerated fatigue characterization of metallic material will be derived from and validated in experimental investigations. Processed aluminum material from casting and extrusion molding will exemplify this procedure and transfer it to circular aluminum, before extending the characterization to corrosion fatigue, which will be the final step in cyclic material characterization with respect to its application potential.

Sponsors and partners

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2024 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101177586, project Digi4circular

digi4circular.eu

Partners