Aluminium members in composite structures – a review

Abstract

This paper presents a review of composite structures in which aluminium alloys are used. Current trends in the research of composite structures with aluminium girders and their possible applications in structural engineering were shown. In the presented solutions, advantageous properties of aluminium alloys were exploited, such as high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance and recyclability. The authors demonstrated the structural behaviour of aluminium-concrete and aluminiumtimber composite beams based on their own tests as well as investigations presented in the literature. Furthermore, aluminium-concrete composite columns, a composite mullion made of an aluminium alloy and timber, and a military bridge consisting of aluminium truss components, a stay-in-place-form, reinforcement and concrete were presented. In addition to the description of the structural elements, the main conclusions from their experimental, theoretical and numerical analyses were also demonstrated in this paper. The connection of aluminium girders with concrete or timber slabs provided for the increase of the load-bearing capacity and stiffness, and it eliminated the problem of local buckling in girder flanges and lateral-torsional buckling of girders in the analysed solutions.

Keywords

• aluminium alloys
• aluminium-concrete composite beams
• aluminium-timber composite beams
• concrete-filled aluminium tubes
• engineered wood products