Aluminium Structures in Building and Civil Engineering Applications

Structural applications of aluminium are considered in this paper. Although the discussion is mainly devoted to Europe, the paper also refers, where possible, to developments in other parts of the world. The problems faced by a designer in creating an optimum design are described, followed by a brief review of the research carried out in the past four decades on the structural behaviour of aluminium and a preview of topics still to be investigated. A historical overview of standards is then given, starting from the ECCS Recommendations up to the recently published Eurocode 9. Finally, a number of structural applications are dealt with, as well as some future directions and concluding remarks

Optimization of Aluminum Stressed Skin Panels in Offshore Applications

Since the introduction of general European rules for the design of aluminium structures, specific rules for the design of aluminum stressed skin panels are available. These design rules have been used for the optimization of two extrusion products: one for explosions and wind load governing and one for explosions and floor load governing. The optimized extrusions fulfill Class 3 section properties, leading to weight reductions up to 25% of regularly-used shear panel sections. When the design is based on Class 4 section properties, even more weight reduction may be reached. The typical failure mode of the optimized stressed skin panels depends on the applied height of the hat stiffeners. For sections using relatively high hat stiffeners, failure is introduced by yielding of the heat-affected zone. For this type of cross-section, Eurocode 9 design rules and numerical calculations show very good agreement. For sections using relatively low hat stiffeners, failure is introduced by global buckling. For this type of cross-section, Eurocode 9 gives rather conservative results

Experimental and numerical analyses of aluminium frames exposed to fire conditions

Design models are required to assess the behaviour in fire of aluminium structures. These models need to be validated by comparison with test. Up to now tests results are only available for (small scale) individual aluminium components. This paper provides the results of tests carried out on aluminium frames. A finite element model in combination with a sophisticated constitutive model are used to simulate the tests. The results of the simulations agree with that of the tests at room and elevated temperatures. Keywords

Load sharing in insulated double glass units : determination of the air pressure in the cavity due to mechanical and thermo-mechanical loads

Glass is an indispensable building material because of the special properties. Glass has a low heat resistance and therefore it is a thermal leakage in the outer wall. Insulated double glass reduces the heat transfer tremendously. The closed air in the hermetically closed cavity is a good insulator. The magnitude of the pressure in a hermetically closed cavity is an unknown parameter. What is the cavity pressure if the temperature changed, ambient pressure changed, under a uniformly distributed load, under a concentrated load and the like? These influences were investigated by an analytical model and were verified by experimental research

Cross-sectional classification of aluminium beams subjected to fire

Fire design for aluminium alloy beams is performed using the same system of cross-sectional slenderness classes as is employed at room temperature. Identical width-over-thickness ratio limits are used to define the boundaries between the classes. These limits are known (and demonstrated) to be conservative, but may in fact be over-conservative. Especially for tempered alloys, the geometric limits may be relaxed considerably, allowing cross-sections to be upgraded in class for fire design calculations