Experimental Investigation of Load-Bearing Capacity in EN AW-2024-T3 Aluminum Alloy Sheets Strengthened by SPIF-Fabricated Stiffening Rib

• Published in: Materials Vol. 17; no. 8; p. 1730
• Main Authors: Khalaf, Hassanein I, Al-Sabur, Raheem, Kubit, Andrzej, Święch, Łukasz, Żaba, Krzysztof, Novák, Vit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 10-04-2024
• Subjects: Alloys; Aluminum alloys; Aluminum base alloys; Bearing capacity; Bending; Buckling; Composite materials; Deformation; digital image correlation (DIC); Digital imaging; Forming techniques; Industrial applications; Load; load-bearing capacity; Mechanical properties; Metal sheets; Shear strength; single-point incremental forming (SPIF); Stiffening; stiffening ribs; Strength to weight ratio; Variance analysis; United States > US; deformation; single-point incremental forming (SPIF); digital image correlation (DIC); load-bearing capacity; stiffening ribs
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma17081730

The aluminum strength-to-weight ratio has become a highly significant factor in industrial applications. Placing stiffening ribs along the surface can significantly improve the panel's resistance to bending and compression in aluminum alloys. This study used single-point incremental forming (SPIF) to fabricate stiffening ribs for 1 mm and 3 mm thick aluminum alloy EN AW-2024-T3 sheets. A universal compression machine was used to investigate sheet deformation. The resulting deformation was examined using non-contact digital image correlation (DIC) based on several high-resolution cameras. The results showed that deformation progressively escalated from the edges toward the center, and the highest buckling values were confined within the non-strengthened area. Specimens with a larger thickness (3 mm) showed better effectiveness against buckling and bending for each applied load: 8 kN or 10 kN. Additionally, the displacement from the sheet surface decreased by 60% for sheets 3 mm thick and by half for sheets 1 mm thick, which indicated that thicker sheets could resist deformation better.