Experimental work and FEM-calculations on the interaction of local buckling modes in aluminium sections

The extrusion manufacturing process of aluminium allows protiles with a large variety of cross-sections. If these are thin-walled. cross-sectional instability miszht occur, which is caused by interaction of local buckling modes of connecting plate elements. To investigate this phenomenon. an extensive set of experiments is performed on uniformly compressed aluminium RHS-sections at Eindhoven University of Technology. In-plane and out-of-plane plate detormations are visualised using a so-called ESPI-laser system. The tests are used to alidate a finite element model. which results are presented as welt. In a subsequent research this model will he used to analyse the failure modes of more complex sections