Atmospheric corrosion damage to steel space structures

This paper presents a framework for evaluation of potential damage due to atmospheirc corrosion to steel space structures in coastal areas through an integration of knowledge in material science and structural analysis. A refined exponential model for estimating corrosion of steel materials is presented based on long-term experimental data available. The formula for relating structural natural frequency sensitivity to structural member thickness is then derived to assess the sensitivity of natural frequency to variation of member thickness due to corrosion. The nonlinear static analysis is finally conducted to evaluate effects of atmospheric corrosion on the stress of structural members and the safety of steel space structures. A steel space structure to be built in China is taken as a case study to examine the feasibility of the proposed approach and to assess the potential damage caused by atmospheric corrosion to the structure. The results demonstrate that the atmospheric corrosion does not obviously affect the natural frequencies of the structure but it does create stress redistribution and some of the structural members may have large stress changes.