Corrosion prognosis: maritime structural performances in service environments

• Published in: Volume 9: Offshore Geotechnics; Torgeir Moan Honoring Symposium
• Main Authors: Wang, Yikun, Downes, Jonathan, Wharton, Julian, Shenoi, Ramanand
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: ASME 2017
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/410885/; https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/410885/1/OMAE2017_62425_draft.pdf

For marine platforms, assessing the structural resilience in a corroded condition is vital for both design and maintenance practices. With the development of computational and experimental methods for structural analysis, the accuracy of the structural response prediction relies on a better understanding of the material degradation process. However, a realistic estimate of corrosion is inherently a complex undertaking. Corrosion of even a single form can often involve multiple stages, each of which has different steps across several geometric scales; corrosion systems are often multi-layered and involve geometric complexities; the mechanical factors (stress/strain distributions) could affect the corrosion initiation and kinetics. These complexities have resulted in scientific barriers to the advancement of a corrosion prognosis that forecasts damage accumulation, as well as a computational realization of the corrosion-structural analysis. This paper reviews the numerical and experimental work that the authors have done, including the development of nonlinear finite element models to assess the behavior of damaged steel ship structures, full-field experimental validation, application of the mechano-electrochemical theory and in situ tensile-corrosion tests. It is intended that the outcome of this research will be the establishment of a systematic multi-scale multi-physics experimental and numerical protocol for predicting aged structural resilience.