ABSTRACT
Pitting corrosion may be a common progressive damage to ships, which may precipitate the collapse of the ship hull. In this paper, a method is introduced to study the ultimate strength of a ship hull with pits. A series of analysis will be performed to investigate the pit reduction on the ship hull ultimate strength, where different levels of corrosion damage will be included in different areas. As the pits happen randomly, the pit depths will change with time and area dramatically. Due to the high deviation of the pit size and locations, the ultimate strength of the ship hull with pits will be uncertain. By a series of Monte Carlo simulations, the uncertainty of the ultimate strength of a pitted ship hull will be assessed including the material, geometry randomness, as well as the sensitivity of the related factors.
