Corrosion pit-induced stress concentration in 7005 aluminium alloy: Mechanical degradation and pit parameter analysis

•Stress concentration resulting from corrosion pits leads to a decrease in elongation of aluminium alloy.•Depth of the corrosion pits obeys a Gaussian distribution, and aspect ratio gradually decreases and stabilizes.•The size and location of single pits can affect stress concentration.•Size parameters of the primary corrosion pit affect stress concentration in secondary pits.•Position of secondary corrosion pits within the primary pit affects stress concentration. Mechanical testing and surface analysis were used to investigate the corrosion behaviour of 7005 aluminium alloys in simulated atmospheric environments. Stress concentrations of pits lead to degradation of mechanical properties. The effect of pit sizes and location parameters on stress concentration was analysed using finite element (FE) method. The location of the secondary pits within the primary pits affects the stress concentration factor (SCF). Secondary pits located in the unaffected region have almost no effect on the stress concentration. A Back Propagation neural network (BPNN) model was developed to predict the stress concentrations of secondary pits with different location parameters.