Effect of pitting corrosion on local strength of hold frames of bulk carriers (2nd Report)—Lateral-distortional buckling and local face buckling

Pitting corrosion is typical corrosion observed on coated hold frames of bulk carriers which exclusively carry coal and iron ore. In order to secure the safety of these types of bulk carriers, it is important to understand the effect of pitting corrosion on local strength of hold frames.

In order to investigate this effect, a series of 4- and 3-point bend tests on structural models which consist of web, shell and face plates has been carried out. Artificial pitting was created on the web plate to simulate pitting. In the 4-point bend tests, two equal concentrated loads have been applied vertically at the one-third points of simply supported models so that compression load due to bending would act on the face plate. In this testing condition, lateral-distortional buckling occurred before reaching the ultimate strength and local buckling of the face plate was observed after reaching the ultimate strength. The effect of web plate pitting on the lateral-distortional buckling strength was found to be small but the ultimate strength decreases with increase in the degree of pitting intensity. In the 3-point bend tests, concentrated load has been applied vertically at the center of simply supported models so that compression load due to bending would act on the face plate. In this testing condition, local face buckling occurred just after reaching the ultimate strength. The ultimate strength is found to be decreasing with increase in the degree of pitting intensity.

A series of non-linear FE analyses has been performed to simulate the deformation behavior observed in the tests. It has been revealed that even in the case of randomly distributed pitting corrosion the ultimate strength of the structural models was almost the same as that of the structural models with uniform corrosion corresponding to the average thickness loss.     

Effect of pitting corrosion on the ultimate strength of steel plates subjected to in-plane compression and bending

Corrosion pits with a circular cone shape are typically observed on coated hold frames of aged bulk carriers which carry exclusively coal and iron ore. In order to ensure the safety of these types of bulk carrier, it is necessary to understand the effect of pitting corrosion on the local strength of hold frames. In order to investigate this effect, a series of nonlinear finite-element (FE) analyses has been performed with pitted plates subjected to in-plane compressive loads and bending moments. It has been shown that the ultimate compression load or bending moment of pitted plates is smaller than that of uniformly corroded plates in terms of average thickness loss, and that predictions of the ultimate strength using the average thickness loss at the minimum cross section would be conservative. In order to establish a method of evaluating strength reduction due to pitting corrosion, it is important to identify the failure mode that would be most detrimentally affected by pitting corrosion. It was found that the reduction of the ultimate compressive load or bending moment due to pitting corrosion is smaller than that of the tensile strength in terms of equivalent thickness.     

Comparing the self-assessed and examiner-assessed driving skills of Japanese driving school students

Previous research about subjective driving skills has revealed that drivers, especially younger males, tend to rate their driving skills more highly than those of the average driver. This study examines the accuracy of Japanese novice drivers' self-evaluation of their driving skills by comparing their self-assessments with assessments made by a driving examiner. We also examined the effects of gender and age on the accuracy of driver self-evaluation of their skills.