Ultimate strength assessment of steel stiffened plate structures with grooving corrosion damage

•New approach to numerically simulate grooving corrosion on stiffened steel plates.•Weld connections, weld-induced residual stresses and initial deflections considered.•Insights on the corrosion effect of load shortening curves and ultimate strength.•Assessment of the generality of empirical formulas.

An approach to simulate the behaviour of steel stiffened plates subjected to weld-induced grooving corrosion using nonlinear finite element modelling is proposed. The model includes the effects of different initial geometric imperfections and weld-induced residual stresses. The influence of corrosion damage on the load shortening curves and ultimate strength is investigated. It is shown that grooving corrosion depth has a greater influence on structural performance as compared with corrosion width for the same volume loss. Such corrosion damage could cause a significant reduction in the ultimate strength of a plate panel. Considerations of weld-induced deflection and residual stresses further enhance the corrosion influence on the strength capacity.