Lateral Buckling Tests of Cold-rolled Aluminium Alloy 5052 Zee Beams

This paper presents a series of four-point bending tests of cold-rolled aluminium alloy 5052 Zee beams subjected to lateral buckling. Six Zee beams with three different lengths were selected for testing. A dual-actuator loading system was specifically designed to keep the load always in vertical direction and through the shear centre of the cross sections during testing. Lateral buckling failure modes were observed in long beams, while local-lateral interaction buckling was seen in short ones. The test results in this study will be used to calibrate the new proposed design guidelines for cold-rolled sections subjected to lateral buckling in an ongoing research project at the University of Sydney.