Thermomechanical Performance of Steel and Recycled Aluminium Plates in Tropical Savanna Climatic Conditions

This research covers and compares the thermomechanical behavior of steel and recycled aluminium plates under concentrated loading and buckling conditions in several thermal conditions simulating the tropical savanna (Aw) climate. The study aims to explore their structural behavior as a function of temperature and evaluate their applicability in heat-sensitive applications. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to model the buckling and deformation behavior of the two materials at temperatures from 0°C to 44°C and uniaxial loading of up to 100 MPa. The analytical and numerical solutions were compared; their results would differ no more than 5%, thus validating the FEA model. The steel plates generally buckled less (greater critical buckling load) in hotter thermal conditions than the aluminium. The buckling load of steel reduced by approximately 40% in Mode 1 when it went from 33°C to 44°C, while the buckling load of aluminium reduced by just 4.71%. The same trend was observed in Mode 2. These findings validate that recycled aluminium possesses superior thermomechanical stability to tropical thermal fluctuation and can be a good alternative as a material for structures in applications of high thermal fluctuation, which will be beneficial towards maximum utilization of resources in building engineering.