Experimental and numerical strength assessment of stiffened plates subjected to severe non-uniform corrosion degradation and compressive load

The objective of this work is to investigate experimentally and numerically the severe non-uniform corrosion degradation effect on the load carrying capacity of stiffened plates. Eight stiffened plates, which are initially corroded in real open sea conditions with different corrosion degradation levels, have been tested under compressive load. Different factors leading to a reduction of structural capacity have been investigated, including the material properties, degree of degradation, equivalent thickness and testing support conditions. The experimental results also showed to be very close to those estimated by the existing guideline procedure for a numerical evaluation of the ultimate strength, adjusted to be used for the severe corroded stiffened plates.