Environmental and energy concerns have forced transportation sector to seriously consider light weighting of vehicles. A 10% vehicle mass reduction reduce fuel consumption by 5.7% - 7.4% which in turn reduces greenhouse gas emission by a large factor when considered at a global level. Magnesium being the lightest structural metal on earth has shown promises in playing a crucial role in weight saving in transportation industries. A study shows that if current passenger seats in fuselage of a mid-range airplane are replaced with high specific strength magnesium alloys, over half a billion dollars is saved on the fuel costs over the life span of the plane. Currently magnesium consumption is mainly toward non-structural components, and is averaged at close to 5kg per cars manufactured in North America. Further mass reduction should include load-bearing components that are under cyclic loads with variety of load histories including multiaxial loads. Design of fatigue-critical structural components made of Mg requires cyclic plasticity modeling of this HCPmetal.
