Ultimate compressive strength of deteriorated steel web plate with pitting and uniform corrosion wastage

Steel structural members are likely to be exposed to corrosive environments and thus, corrosion is one of the dominant life-limiting factors of steel structures. Extensive studies on the effects of pitting and uniform corrosion on the strength performance of steel structural members under a wide variety of loading conditions have been undertaken to assess the relationship between pitting corrosion intensity and residual strength. The aim of this study is to investigate the ultimate compressive strength characteristics of steel web plate elements with pit and uniform corrosion wastage. A series of ABAQUS nonlinear elastic-plastic large deformation finite element analyses are carried out on I-shaped section steel girder models with varying pitting corrosion intensities. Artificial pitting of different intensities is considered on the web plates and a uniform loading is applied vertically on the upper flange section. The ultimate load-carrying capacity of the deteriorated models with different levels of uniform thickness loss is also studied. The results are applied to the assessment of the ultimate compressive strength of web plates with different pitting corrosion intensities and a uniform loss thickness by developing design formulae that represent the average loss thickness versus the ultimate load-carrying capacity. (c) 2016 Sharif University of Technology. All rights reserved.