Corrosion wastage of structural members in oil tankers over the time causes variability in structural properties. Corrosion is a function of many variables and uncertainties, such as the types of corrosion protection systems used, types of cargo, temperature, humidity, etc. The traditional engineering and analysis, which uses simplified deterministic approaches to account for this time-dependent reliability or risk of aging ship structure, is not suitable. This investigation explores the use of statistical analysis approaches to predict corrosion wastage in oil carrying tankers. Corrosion wastage measurements from transverse members of 115 oil tankers were collected to add to an extensive corrosion wastage database. Lognormal function was found to best fit the collected data when compared to other methods, such as the Weibull function. Linear regression in the form of three mathematical models of corrosion wastage, developed by considering age of ship, coating life, and the location of the transverse members, is used to indicate the relationship between corrosion wastage and age of ship. Corrosion rates were determined by the derivatives of the corrosion wastage. The results show that corrosion wastage may accelerate after twenty years of service. It is expected that the study will help identify which structural members may be more susceptible to corrosion wastage and require more frequent inspection.

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