Flexural capacity of perforated aluminium CHS tubes-An experimental study

This paper presents the results of twelve experimental tests on the flexural capacity of perforated aluminium circular hollow section (CHS) tubes; four of which were carried out without perforations. Two heat-treated aluminium alloys were used: 6061-T6 and 6063-T5. The tests covered the size and number of perforations. The flexural capacity, failure modes, and the distribution of strains around circular perforations were determined. The experimental results were then compared against the design strengths calculated from the North American Specification (NAS) for cold-formed steel (CFS) sections with perforations, derived from modified Direct Strength Method (DSM) and modified Continuous Strength Method (CSM) for aluminium alloy members with perforations, which were found to be conservative by approximately 23%, 27% and 22%, respectively. When strength reduction factors were applied, and the unified design equations proposed by Zhou and Young were used, the reduction in strength was 6% conservative to the test strengths.