Low-Cycle Corrosion Fatigue of Three Engineering Alloys in Salt Water

Abstract

Low-cycle fatigue tests were conducted under strain control in salt water on 2024 aluminum, 304 stainless steel, and 1045 steel. All three materials showed a significant reduction in life due to corrosion fatigue in the low-cycle fatigue regime. The corrosion fatigue life of the aluminum and steel was time dependent, with significantly shorter lives at lower frequencies or at longer strain hold times. The corrosion fatigue life of the stainless steel was not time dependent for the conditions studied. Elastic and plastic strain-range versus life equations were modified by a frequency term to predict the corrosion fatigue life. This model correlated the fatigue data to within a factor of 1.28. A modification of this model correlated some corrosion fatigue data in the literature to within a factor of 1.19.