Abstract

The presented work investigates the corrosion influence on the structural behaviour of structural elements. Nine welded large-scale stiffened plates, and 30 standard small specimens have been subjected to the accelerated marine immersed conditions. After corrosion testing, the specimens have been accurately measured in terms of surface characteristics. The coupon specimens were furtherly subjected to tensile loading to develop the mechanical properties conditional on the severity of corrosion degradation. The FE analyses employing the technique of random field modelling were developed and validated against experiments. The stiffened plates were subjected to the compressive loading, and the structural response has been analysed, accounting for initial imperfection, corrosion degradation, welding-induced residual stresses, and material nonlinearity. The numerical models of different accuracy of corrosion degradation models were validated with the experimental results showing that only when non-uniform thickness reduction with subsequent changes in mechanical properties is taken into account, the structural behaviour could be accurately simulated. An analytical formulation allowing for a fast estimation of the structural capacity of corroded stiffened plates and the reliability formulation taking into account the time-dependent development of corrosion degradation has been developed.

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