Buckling and significant deformations are common in connection zones with box sections subjected to high local forces. This design is also employed in the construction of offshore constructions that may be subjected to corrosion from the environment. As a result, it is necessary to investigate box sections under local forces with damage in the web. This study investigates the reinforcement in the damaged area utilizing CFRP layers by modeling corrosion in the form of openings. This article examined nine experimental specimens with web damage and reinforcement in the same location utilizing CFRP layers. In addition, a numerical research was carried out using characteristics such as web slenderness, opening shape, inclination, number of openings, and distance from the beam edge. Machine learning models were also employed to predict numerical and experimental data, as well as to estimate effective parameters using the SHAP method. Based on the results, it was determined that web slenderness has the greatest effect on strength. Also, by reinforcing the damaged zone with CFRP, the strength of the damaged sample can be increased by about 30.0% and 38.1%.
Ammari et al. (2026) studied this question.