Publications

Aluminum behavior during fire heating: Focus on deformation

Bowyer, Justin; Luketa, Anay L.; Gill, Walt; Donaldson, Burl

This paper discusses testing and modeling efforts to experimentally determine, and numerically model the behavior of aluminum at incipient melt conditions. More particularly, the role of the oxide layer which develops on the surface of aluminum which is heating in an oxidizing environment has been found to influence deformation. Several configurations where tested composed of aluminum rods at different orientations with regard to standard gravity, and video images were taken to record movement. Modeling with comparable materials shows similar behavior and encourages additional work where some numerical comparisons could be researched further. © 2011 INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR FIRE SAFETY SCIENCE.