The stability of thin-walled structures under water can be affected by many factors including initial defects and deformations/stresses. Geometric defects produced in the manufacturing process are usually randomly distributed and often difficult to quantify. Therefore, this paper studies the influence of modal amplitude defects and local Gaussian pit defects on structural stability. The modal amplitude defects are used to characterize the defect morphology of the actual structure. The experimental results show that the deviation between the numerical solution and the experimental value is 3.69%. Aiming at the problem that the deviation between the theoretical value and the experimental value gradually increases when the length-diameter ratio of the model increases in the CCS2018 specification formula. Based on the neural network prediction model, this paper proposes a geometric factor that comprehensively considers the influence of ellipticity and geometric factors to modify the specification formula. Then the quantitative relationship between structural deformation and stability is established. It is verified that the deviation between the analytical solution of the modified formula and the experimental value is 3.92%. In addition, this paper further discusses the influence of welding residual stress and deformation on the bearing capacity of the structure under external pressure. The research shows that the existence of residual stress and deformation can increase the bearing capacity of the structure under external pressure by about 8% ~ 15%.



