Testing and analysis of aluminium H-sections subjected to local buckling

A significant gap in available experimental data exists concerning aluminium H-sections subjected to local buckling under uniform compression. Therefore, new experimental data are needed to set up accurate prediction methodologies for codification purposes and for everyday design practice. Consequently, the main goal of this work is the widening of the experimental background by presenting and discussing the results obtained from 17 new stub column tests with varying plate slenderness ratios. In addition, a comprehensive review of the experimental results available in the technical literature is provided. Moreover, the collected experimental results, consisting of 55 tests including the new ones, have been used to evaluate the accuracy of current design provisions (European, Chinese and American codes). A comparison between the experimental results and the outcomes from applying the codes revealed that the European and Chinese standards were approximately 6 % more conservative than the American standard. Also, more refined analytical methodologies have been applied. Among these, the Continuous Strength Method (CSM) and the Direct Strength Method (DSM) have been applied. Finally, a theoretical method based on J 2 deformation theory of plasticity (DTP), and the extension of the Effective Thickness Method (ETM) currently adopted in ANNEX L of EN 1999-1-1, are herein investigated for the first time with reference to H-sections. Among all the analytical methods, the results from the DTP procedure are very close to the available experimental data, with a difference of approximately 4 %.