LAUSR

Thin-walled circular tubes (TWCTs) have been extensively used in space lattice structures and other industrial areas. Corrosion is inevitable for steel structures with regard to its service life, and it will remarkably reduce the loading capacity and critically threaten the structural safety. The present work aims to investigate the influence of pitting corrosion on the bending capacity of TWCT. A series of nonlinear numerical analyses was conducted to investigate the influences of corrosion pit shape, specification, corrosion thickness, diameter, and thickness of TWCT on bending capacity. Corrosion was simulated by reducing the thickness of shell element. Random corrosion distribution was generated, and its influence on bending capacity was estimated. The method for generating a random corrosion would provide a reference for the analysis of other structures with corrosion.