Corrosion-fatigue initiation

F. P. Ford, Prediction of corrosion fatigue initiation in low alloy and carbon steel water systems at 288C, Proceedings of 6th International Conference for Environmental Degradation of Materials in Nuclear Power Systems—Water Reactors, San Diego, TMS, 1993. 

Separate the metal from the environment with a physical barrier. Many corrosion inhibitors make use of this principal to protect metals. Proper use of an appropriate inhibitor may reduce or eliminate pitting. Pits are frequently initiation sites for corrosion-fatigue cracks. The effectiveness of inhibitors depends upon their application to clean metal surfaces. An example of this method is the use of zinc coatings on steel to stifle pit formation. 

The simultaneous action of cyclic stress alternating tensile and compressive and corrosive attack is known as corrosion fatigue. Corrosive attack can be in the form of pitting. These pits function as notches, acting as stress risers and initiate cracks. Once a crack is formed, the probability of pipe failure is enhanced by further corrosion as corrosion is accelerated by action of stress. The tip of the crack deep within the fracture, the area under the greatest stress, is anodic to the wider part of the crack. As corrosion progresses, the metal at the tip of the crack goes into the solution, the crack deepens and eventually penetrates the wall of the tube. 

Duquette, D. J., Mechanisms of crack initiation and propagation in corrosion fatigue , Proc. Int. Conf. on Mechanisms of Environmental Cracking in Materials, University of Surrey, 4-7 April 1977, The Metals Society, pp. 305-21 (1977)... 

It is often difficult to conduct laboratory tests in which both the environmental and stressing conditions approximate to those encountered in service. This applies particularly to the corrosive conditions, since it is necessary to find a means of applying cyclic stresses that will also permit maintenance around the stressed areas of a corrosive environment in which the factors that influence the initiation and growth of corrosion fatigue cracks may be controlled. Among these factors are electrolyte species and concentration, temperature, pressure, pH, flow rate, dissolved oxygen content and potential (free corrosion potential or applied). 

Structural failures in general occur by a combination of crack initiation followed by subcritical crack growth mechanism such as stress corrosion, fatigue, and creep until a critical crack size is reached. Thus, fracture mechanics is useful in evaluating ac that leads to failure by fracture. The application of fracture mechanics in failure analysis throws light on the progress from subcritical crack growth to fracture, the amount of load... 

In aluminum alloys exposed to aqueous chloride solutions, corrosion fatigue cracks frequently originate at sites of pitting or intergranular corrosion. Initial crack propagation... 

Types of tests. Laboratory corrosion fatigue tests can be classified as either cycles-to-failure (complete fracture) or crack propagation (crack growth) test. In cycles-to-failure testing, specimens or parts are subjected to a sufficient number of stress cycles to initiate and propagate cracks until complete fracture occurs. Such data are usually obtained by... 

Duquette, D.J., Corrosion Fatigue Crack Initiation Processes A State-of-The-Art Review, in Environment-Induced Cracking of Metals, R.P. Gangloff, M.B. Yves (eds.), NACE-10, Houston, TX, p. 45, 1990. 

It is concluded that the pin failed due to fatigue initiated at the outside cylindrical surface where wear and pitting corrosion occurred. The fracture initiated at a shallow circumferential groove and corrosion of the fracture occurred after the rupture. There was no evidence of stress-corrosion cracking. 

In corrosion fatigue experiments, a notch is cut in the specimen at which maximum stress will occur. Crack initiation and growth thus occur at the tip of this notch and may be measured with the aid of a microscope. 

Metal fatigue is the process of crack initiation and growth due to the action of a fluctuating mechanical stress. Corrosion fatigue is simply metal fatigue that... 

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