Strength of an aluminum column web in tension

The component method is widely recognized as a suitable tool for the prediction of the mechanical response of beam-to-column steel joints. Recently, this method has been extended also to aluminum structures. For some joint components, i.e., the ones based on equivalent T-stubs, the formulations traditionally given for steel have been properly adapted to aluminum by using some corrective factors which have been calibrated on the basis of experimental and numerical analyses. On the contrary, due to the lack of exhaustive studies in literature, other joint components have been preliminarily extended to aluminum by simply proposing the same expressions used for steel. Nevertheless, this type of assumption may lead to an inappropriate evaluation of the actual strength. Therefore, the current paper aims at developing suitable formulations for predicting the strength of an aluminum column web in tension, on the basis of calibrated FE numerical models. The results of a parametric analysis, implemented by varying the mechanical features of the base material, are presented, including also the influence of the heat-affected zones. Finally, the results of a sensitivity analysis on the column axial load are shown. Therefore, based on the obtained outcomes some refined formulations are suggested and proposed for possible implementation in existing codes.