Strength of aluminium extrusions under compression and bending

摘要

The ultimate strength of thin-walled aluminium alloy sections subjected to uniform compression and moment-gradient loading is investigated experimentally. Square and rectangular hollow sections and I-sections of alloy 6082 in tempers T4 and T6 and alloy 7108 in temper T7 are tested. The results from 32 different tests are presented, varying cross sectional geometry, alloy and temper, and loading conditions. Since extruded aluminium alloys have mechanical anisotropy owing to the manufacturing process, results from uniaxial tensile tests carried out to determine the variation of the flow stress and the R-value with respect to the tensile direction are also presented. The experimental compressive and bending strengths of the sections are compared with the specifications in EC9. In general, good correlation between test results and EC9 is obtained.