Strength and Behaviour of Cold-Rolled Aluminium Members

This thesis presents a comprehensive study on cold-rolled aluminium alloy 5052 members. Roll-forming is a new method of manufacturing aluminium sections, recently introduced by BlueScope Permalite. This new method is more cost-effective than the conventional extrusion, and has the potential for commercialisation in the worldwide market. The provision of design guidelines is necessary for the applications of these aluminium alloy sections. The final outcomes of this thesis is to propose new member design formulae for columns and beams based on the Direct Strength Method currently formulated in the AS/NZS 4600:2018 and AISI S100-16 for the design of cold-formed steel structures. Two separate experimental programs were conducted to investigate the strength and behaviour of cold-rolled aluminium members. The cross-sections for experiments were selected from the “Roll-Formed Aluminium Purlins Solutions” catalogue published by BlueScope Permalite. The first program focused on Channel columns to obtain both flexural and flexural-torsional buckling. The second experimental program studied the lateral buckling of Channel and Zee beams. Detailed nonlinear finite element (FE) models using ABAQUS software were developed to simulate the experiments. The FE results were in good agreements with the experimental results. The FE models were subsequently used in a parametric study to extend the data range of strengths of cold-rolled aluminium members. Test and parametric study results were used to evaluate the applicability of current Australian, American and European design provisions for cold-rolled aluminium members. The design codes were found to provide accurate predictions for global buckling strengths, but was unsafe for interaction buckling strengths. New design guidelines are required for these types of cold-rolled aluminium alloy 5052 members