Study of local buckling performance of 7075-T6 high-strength aluminium alloy H-section stub columns

Abstract

The local buckling performance of 7075-T6 high-strength aluminium alloy extruded H-section stub columns are investigated in this paper. Seven H-section stub column tests were carried out, in which the material properties, initial geometric imperfections, failure modes, critical local buckling strengths and load carrying capacities of specimens are all reported. Then the finite element (FE) models were developed and validated against the test results. Upon validation, a thorough parametric study was conducted to obtain further data over a large range of cross-sections. Afterwards, on the basis of test results and FE data, provisions in the current design standards, GB 50429 (Chinese), EN 1999-1-1:2007 (European) and AADM 2015 (American) were evaluated. The design codes showed conservative strength predictions, especially for stub columns with large cross-section slenderness. A modified DSM design approach was proposed for 7075-T6 H-section stub columns, and the reliability analysis was performed to confirm the applicability of the proposed modified DSM approach.