Corrosion fatigue life simulation and reliability analysis of steel structures

Environmental corrosion and fatigue damage are two long-term existing factors that deteriorate the safety of steel structures during the service period. Furthermore, fatigue and corrosion exhibit obvious interaction effects and both have high dispersion characteristics. Therefore, reliability analysis with consideration of the corrosion fatigue interaction effect should be carried out. A corrosion fatigue damage propagation model with consideration of the interaction factor k was established to reflect the additional negative impact of the interaction effect. Based on the numerical calculation results, reliability analysis was carried out, corrosion fatigue reliability curves for each loading condition were obtained, and the impacts of environmental corrosive degree were analysed. The FE calculation results based on the proposed simulation method are in good agreement with the test, indicating the validity of the proposed corrosion fatigue simulation method. The corrosion fatigue reliability analysis results show that the corrosion fatigue life is greatly affected by the corrosion rate, and the corrosive environment has a more obvious effect on the life and distribution of corrosion fatigue life under a lower stress amplitude. The established corrosion fatigue life simulation method enables the accurate and facilitated prediction of corrosion fatigue life with consideration of the interaction effect and will provide a technical basis for the reliability analysis of steel structures.