LAUSR

In this work, we focus on assessing the group effect of localized corrosion on the ultimate strength of the marine structural plates and study the load-deformation behaviors of plates of various slenderness and uniaxial compression. Meanwhile, we investigate different corroded patterns from a single circular pit to 25 circular pits distributed over the plate and carry out hundreds of nonlinear finite element simulations by combining the number, depth, distribution of pits with imperfections and slenderness of plate. The distribution of multiple pits causes scattering of stress concentration on the plate, then the plastic section of plate changes with wider distribution of damage simultaneously. The ultimate strength arises when un-loading zone comprised of the yielding strips and holes extends across the plate. It can be concluded that the corroded condition defined as group effect of pits manipulates the deformation state and the loading capacity of plate at the ultimate strength mode that coincides with the proportion of effective loading area and section in the process of post-buckling. To validate the effect of pits group, we perform the numerical experiments of the post-buckling of steel plates containing pits in a row with different orientation.