Beam and shell elements for thin-walled aluminium structures

In this paper, the finite element formulation of a beam and shell clement for numerical modeling of thin-walled aluminum made beam-like structures has been described. Modern thin-walled beam-like members made up of aluminum arc used extensively in the construction industry because of their characteristic features like lightness, rccy c lability, corrosion resistance and, ease of workability. The constitutive behavior of aluminum alloys is different from the structural steel, especially in plastic deformation range. In the case of aluminum alloys, progressive yielding is seen which can not be modeled with normal elasto-plastic material model with isotropic hardening. Having a better constitutive model leads to a more accurate structural behavior in case of extreme loading and failure of the structure and also determination of the load carrying capacity. The Ramberg-Osgood constitutive law is most popularly used to model the elasto-plastic behavior of aluminum material. Here the material model based on Ramberg-Osgood law is implemented in a beam and a shell element, results are compared with the available experimental results illustrating the validity and the application of the formulation in the analysis of aluminum structures.