Ultimate behaviour of aluminium alloy I-beams: New experimental tests and European codification

Abstract

In this work, the ultimate behaviour of I-shaped aluminium beams and a comparison with the current design provisions reported in the Eurocodes are presented. A total number of 15 three-point bending tests are carried out on extruded beams made of 6060-T66, 6082-T6 and 6005A-T6 aluminium alloys at the Strength laboratory of the University of Salerno. The tested cross-sections are characterized by different width-to-thickness ratios and, three different lengths are considered: 1300 mm, 800 mm and 500 mm. Material properties, maximum flexural resistance, rotation capacity and failure mode were fully reported within this manuscript. Moreover, a total number of 86 experimental tests are collected from the scientific literature and, a comparison between the experimental results and those obtained by current design provision EN 1999−1−1 is provided. In the case of bending moment, the experimental results are used to evaluate the accuracy of the new methodologies currently proposed in the Annex L of the new Eurocode 9 draft, i.e. the extension of effective thickness method. The EN 1999 proposal showed a higher accuracy in estimating the I-shaped flexural resistances.