Investigating hole effects on bending performance of aluminum beams with square cross-sections under three-point bending load and their implementation in light vehicles

Abstract

The bending behavior of beams with a square cross-section containing holes under a three-point bending load was investigated in the present study. As aluminum alloys are lighter than steel and there are many automobile companies that use this material, 6063 aluminum alloy was chosen for this study. The present research was carried out both experimentally and numerically. In the numerical section, aluminum beams were simulated with the finite element software LS-DYNA. These beams contained holes with a diameter of 21 mm, which were placed at different distances on the length of the beam. In this research, 36 perforated beams were simulated in three thicknesses: 1, 1.5, and 2, and the holes were placed at 0, 3.5, 7, 10.5, 14, 17.5, 21, 24.5, 28, 35, 42, and 49 mm in relation to the middle of the beam. In addition, a beam without holes was studied for each thickness. Numerical simulations were validated with experiments and good results were observed. The obtained results showed that as the hole moves from the center to the sides, the absorption of energy and maximum force increases. In the final section, the most optimal beams were determined in terms of thickness and hole location, and based on these a car bumper was proposed.