Abstract
The mechanical behavior of corroded steel members is of interest by the increase of aged steel structures. Though there exists considerable literature on the tensile behavior of corroded steel plates, relatively few studies have been reported on the buckling behavior, which in turn, the accumulation of experimental data is still not enough. Therefore, we have applied the three dimensional measurement method by stereo image processing to obtain the out-of-plane deformation during the buckling experiment, and have proved that the method satisfies both of low cost and high accuracy. The method is expected to help researchers to obtain the valuable data easily. Then, buckling experiments have been conducted using the corroded steel specimens taken from three different steel bridges, and the out-of-plane deformation has been measured. It is found from the measuring results that the minimum average thickness, which is defined as the average thickness at the minimum cross section, is the influencing factor of the buckling behavior, and the same knowledge has been obtained from the finite element analysis.
In addition, we have investigated the applicability of the existing buckling formula, by determining the effective thickness as the minimum average thickness. It is clarified from the comparison with the experimental and finite element results that the existing buckling formula can evaluate the residual buckling strength well.
