The effect of corrosive environment on fatigue life and on mean stress sensitivity factor

Abstract

An experimental investigation of the effect of corrosive environment on the fatigue life of circular cross section specimens made from structural low carbon steel S355 is presented in this paper. Uniaxial load controlled fatigue tests in the regime of 105 to 107cycles were performed in two different environments: at room temperature in air (without corrosion) and in-situ fresh water solution environment. Various approaches to evaluate mean stress effect on stress-life behaviour in inert environment are reviewed and used to estimate the mean stress sensitivity factors both for air and corrosive environment. Mean stress sensitivity factor is calculated based on experimental results and predicted using the different approaches. Moreover, a comparison between Haigh Diagram predicted by these models and experimental results is proposed and the Walker approach is found to be the one that best fits experimental data.