Experimental tests on pure aluminium shear panels with welded stiffeners

Pure aluminium is an innovative material recently proposed in the field of seismic engineering, due to both low yield strength and high ductility features. Aimed at evaluating the energy dissipation capacity of stiffened pure aluminium shear panels, an experimental investigation has been recently developed. In the current paper the results of two cyclic tests on aluminium panels with welded stiffeners subjected to shear loads are provided. Tested specimens have in-plane dimensions 1500×1000 mm, with a thickness of 5 mm and are made of AW 1050A alloy, which is characterised by a high degree of purity (more than 99.50%), also subjected to heat treatment to improve the material’s mechanical features. Such a material has been chosen due to its very low yield strength (about 20 MPa after heat treatment), high hardening ratio (about 4) and large ductility (about 40%). Two different configurations of welded stiffeners have been adopted, in order to investigate the effect of plate local slenderness. On the whole, the obtained results pointed out a good structural performance of tested panels, measured in terms of strength, stiffness and dissipative capacity, proving that the proposed system can be usefully employed as a special device for passive seismic protection of new and existing structures.