Fatigue crack initiation and propagation life assessment of butt joint considering the effect of corrosion

Abstract

The purpose of present study is to develop a numerical technique for the fatigue life assessment considering the effect of corrosion. For assessing the fatigue crack initiation life, an elastoplastic constitutive model was developed. The model incorporates a novel cyclic plasticity theory together with a crack initiation criteria, which is extended to consider the surface changes. On the other hand, the crack propagation was taken into account based on linear fracture mechanics considering SIF ranges and an extension of the Paris’ law to consider the corrosion effect. The numerical results showed a good agreement with the experimental data. Moreover, the model prediction was able to catch a reduction of the fatigue life due to the degradation of the mechanical properties in a corrosive environment.