I could not find properties for Aluminum 6061 t5/t7. Is there such a thing? the only property I saw was 6061 T6. Is t5/t7 old designation?Thanks in advance.
As best I can find they exist but are definitely not common.
Aluminum Temper Designations:
-F As fabricated
-H Strain hardened (cold worked) with or without thermal treatment
-H1 Strain hardened without thermal treatment
-H2 Strain hardened and partially annealed
-H3 Strain hardened and stabilized by low temperature heating
Second digit
A second digit denotes the degree of hardness
-HX2 = 1/4 hard
-HX4 = 1/2 hard
-HX6 = 3/4 hard
-HX8 = full hard
-HX9 = extra hard
-O Full soft (annealed)
-T Heat treated to produce stable tempers
-T1 Cooled from hot working and naturally aged (at room temperature)
-T2 Cooled from hot working, cold-worked, and naturally aged
-T3 Solution heat treated and cold worked
-T4 Solution heat treated and naturally aged
-T5 Cooled from hot working and artificially aged (at elevated temperature)
-T51 Stress relieved by stretching
-T510 No further straightening after stretching
-T511 Minor straightening after stretching
-T52 Stress relieved by thermal treatment
-T6 Solution heat treated and artificially aged
-T7 Solution heat treated and stabilized
-T8 Solution heat treated, cold worked, and artificially aged
-T9 Solution heat treated, artificially aged, and cold worked
-T10 Cooled from hot working, cold-worked, and artificially aged
In designing Aluminum beams for bending, is it the same as in steel: i.e. 0.6 Fy or is there a specialized formula? I have not designed members in Aluminum. Also, do you have a reference for section properties: Area, section modulus, Inertia, etc. I know we can just use the dimensions but it does not consider the radius of a hollow tube.
Well, first off, a steel beam isn't just 0.6 Fy...
I'd suggest picking up a copy of the Aluminum Design Manual and/or Aluminum Structures by Kissell and Ferry.
Overall, yes, designing an aluminum beam is similar to steel. However, if you're welding any of the aluminum then everything gets crazy and aluminum loses strength at the weld unlike steel. In the end aluminum is similar but not the same as steel and it's well worth it to do some reading beyond what you'll find online.
That's why I mentioned Aluminum Structures by Kissell and Ferry, this will actually teach you aluminum design and should be (almost) sufficient for a one-off design if you just need to do something simple. It's probably a better place to start than trying to decipher the proper procedure blindly from the Aluminum Design Manual.
