Elastic buckling analysis of corroded stiffened plates with irregular surfaces

Abstract

Numerical simulation is used to study the influence of corrosion damage in stiffened plates focusing on elastic buckling strength. Three-dimensional specta are used to simulate geometries of corroded surfaces and finite element method is employed for computing Euler stress of stiffened plates. The influence of corrosion patterns, amount of corrosion loss and roughness of surface are investigated. Ratio of Euler stress of corroded stiffened plate over Euler stress of un-corroded stiffened plate is used to characterize the effects of corrosion on reduction of buckling strength. Results show that reduction of buckling strength is very sensitive to the amount of corrosion loss and roughness of surface, but less sensitive to the location of corroded region. The potential for decrease in buckling strength as a consequence of corrosion is found to depend on the dominant buckling mode. Residual buckling strength is reduced by as much as 12% for the interaction of plate-web-torsional buckling mode, and by 2% for column buckling.