Behaviour of welded aluminium T-stub connections: experimental analysis and interpretative models

摘要

The prediction of joint mechanical response is an important issue for the advanced analysis of metal structures [1]. On the other hand, it is recognized that the behaviour of connections is very complex, because it includes many local effects, giving rise to complicate stress redistribution among the basic components. Therefore, for a reliable understanding of connection behaviour and setting up of relevant calculation methods the direct experimentation is required. While several tests have been carried out for steel, allowing some consistent calculation procedures to be set up (EC3 – Part 1.8), only few are concerned with aluminium alloys [2]. On the basis of the above considerations, a large research project dealing with aluminium joints has been recently carried out at the University of Naples Federico II, sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR). It was mainly concerned with the behaviour of bolted T-stub joint components, which has been deeply examined under analytical, numerical and experimental points of view [3]. In fact, T-stub is one of the more important joint components. It may be regarded both as stand-alone connection and as a part of several, more complex bolted joint configurations [4].