Predicting the residual strength and deformability of corroded steel plate based on the corrosion morphology

The effects of corrosion on the mechanical performance of steel were investigated by conducting surface measurements and tensile tests on naturally corroded steel plates. With increasing corrosion damage, significant degradations in strength and deformation can be observed. We summarized the existing empirical formulas and elaborated a morphology based numerical method to predict the residual performance of corroded steel. With the aid of specially developed programs, it is easy to extract the pertinent evaluation indicators from the corrosion morphology and generate the finite element model of corroded surfaces. By conducting error analysis of predicted results, we found that most empirical formulas could achieve satisfying predictions in tensile strength but were unworkable in predicting the deformability. The profile based numerical method could not only achieve more reliable predictions in strength but also provide the degraded load-displacement curve of corroded steel plates.