Ultimate compressive strength of plate elements in aluminium: Correlation of finite element analyses and tests

A study with the objective of assessing the reliability of non-linear finite element analyses in predictions of the ultimate strength of aluminium plates subjected to in-plane compression is presented. Outstand elements of alloy AA6082 in tempers T4 and T6 and internal elements of alloys 5083 M and 6082 TF were analysed for a range of b/t-ratios. For the latter class both non-welded and welded plates were studied, the non-welded plates having two levels of geometric imperfections. The accuracy of the predictions was evaluated by comparison with existing experimental results. It was found that the overall correlation between the experimental and predicted ultimate compressive strengths was good. The finite element analyses reproduced the main effects of slenderness, stress-strain curve (i.e. alloy and temper), geometric imperfections and welding (i.e. residual stresses and heat-affected zones) that were observed in the experiments