Investigation of the buckling behavior of cylindrical pipes used in linear actuators

Today, gas and spring piston systems are used in many fields, especially in the automotive sector. These systems cannot provide the desired efficiency at the sensitive and high-capacity production. Electric actuators that can provide more efficient and motion control have started to be preferred instead of gas and spring piston groups after the development of automation systems. We study the buckling behaviour of the pipe profile shaft used in actuator systems in this thesis. In electric cylindrical actuator systems, the buckling behaviour of the compressive load applied due to the product movement on the pipe profile shaft for SAE 304 and AL 6082 material are investigated. The theoretical solutions are obtained with the Rayleigh Ratio method and the theoretical results are supported by the experimental data to the calculate the critical buckling load. In order to obtain the experimental data, a suitable test setup is prepared and critical buckling loads are calculated for Lk=0.7 L and Lk= L support conditions, depending on different material types, variable wall thickness and different pipe lengths. The theoretical solution obtained by the Rayleigh Ratio method is solved for the Lk=0.7 L support condition of AL6082 material and the results are compared with the experimental results of the same product. When the critical loads obtained as a result of the experimental data are examined, it is concluded that the pipe profile of Ø20x2 dimensions made of AL 6082 material could be used.