Abstract
The interest in the mechanical behavior of corroded steel members has been stimulated by the increase of aged steel structures including steel bridges. Some researchers have developed formulas to estimate the residual tensile strength from an average thickness of minimum cross section. However, it is found from the tensile tests and finite element analysis conducted in this research that the conventional methods do not necessarily predict the strength with high accuracy. Therefore, more accurate formulas are developed to estimate the strength which considers not only the average thickness of minimum cross section but also standard deviation of the thickness by reference to the nonlinear behavior observed experimentally and numerically. In addition, we have developed yet other formulas with acceptable accuracy, but required measurement efforts are much less. This allows the owner of steel structures to understand the residual strength of their structures with realistic efforts and costs.
