Numerical modelling and analysis of steel specimens subjected to marine immersed corrosion and tensile load

The present study develops numerical models to analyse the behaviour of steel specimens subjected to marine immersed corrosion degradation and tensile load. The finite element method with the use of the explicit dynamic solver LS-DYNA, satisfying the quasi-static conditions, is employed. Two numerical models are developed, where in the first one, the scans of surfaces gathered from corroded plate specimens are implemented directly to the finite element model. In the second one, the corroded surfaces are generated using random fields. Three different plate thicknesses are investigated. The mechanical properties, i.e., yield stress, Young's modulus, ultimate tensile stress, and total elongation, of specimens subjected to tensile loading for each numerical model are analysed. The results are validated against the experimental test, and failure modes are compared. It was found that both numerical models can estimate the mechanical properties of the corroded plate specimens and are very close to those of the experiment test. Thus, the random field modelling was very efficient in generating the real corroded plate surfaces of analysed specimens.