Compression resistance of aluminium stub columns using Continuous Strength Method

Aluminium members are getting more popular in structural applications due to their high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, attractive appearance, recyclability, ease of production and availability. The elastic modulus of aluminium, however, is only a third of ordinary steel, makes it vulnerable to excessive deflection. Thin sections are susceptible to local buckling at a relatively low stress and welding makes it even worse; the design stress i.e. 0.2% proof stress is almost halved in the vicinity of Heat Affected Zones (HAZ). Currently available design Codes have their guidelines both for welded and non-welded aluminium columns, which seem to produce conservative predictions for aluminium cross-sections subjected to compression. The current research aims to exploit a newly developed strain based design approach 'Continuous Strength Method (CSM)' to predict the behaviour of aluminium tubular cross-sections subjected to compression. This paper also explores the applicability of CSM to include the effects of HAZ.