Incidence of Pitting Corrosion Wastage on the Hull Girder Ultimate Strength

The paper focuses on the assessment of the hull girder ultimate strength, combined with random pitting corrosion wastage, by the incremental-iterative method. After a brief review about the state of art, the local ultimate strength of pitted platings under uniaxial compression is preliminarily outlined and subsequently a closed-form design formula is endorsed in the Rule incremental-iterative method, to account for pitting corrosion wastage in the hull girder ultimate strength check. The ISSC bulk carrier is assumed as reference ship in a benchmark study, devoted to test the effectiveness of the incremental-iterative method, by a comparative analysis with a set of FE simulations, performed by Ansys Mechanical APDL. Four reference cases, with different locations of pitting corrosion wastage, are investigated focusing on nine combinations of pitting and corrosion intensity degrees. Finally, a comparative analysis between the hull girder ultimate strength, combined with pitting corrosion wastage, and the relevant values, complying with the Rule net scantling approach, is performed. Based on current results, the modified incremental-iterative method allows efficiently assessing the hull girder ultimate strength, combined with pitting corrosion wastage, so revealing useful both in the design process of new vessels and in the structural health monitoring of aged ships.