Simulation study on flexural behaviour of perforated aluminium tubes

A numerical investigation was conducted to compare the flexural capacity of AA6063-T5 aluminum alloy tubes with perforations of different hole diameters (4, 6, 8, and 10 mm), hole spacing (13-26-39-52 mm) and tube wall thickness (0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 mm) by the finite-element analysis (FEA). As the tube thickness increases, the load-carrying capacity decreases, while the LCC increases as the hole diameter increases. It was observed that the LCC increased as the distance between the holes increased. ANOVA test was used to analyze the influence of hole diameter, hole spacing, and tube wall thickness on tube load-carrying capacity. It is found from the statistical analyses that the most significant factor on maximum load is tube thickness (97.2 %) between parameters of hole diameter, hole spacing, and tube wall thickness. As a result of the second statistical analysis, the most significant factor on maximum load is hole diameter (73.14 %) between parameters of hole diameter and hole spacing. A second important factor is hole spacing on maximum load.