Investigating the Effects of Corrosion on the Fatigue Life of Steel.
Abstract
Given the size of this country's vast infrastructure and the increasingly competitive environment for fiscal support, it is important that maintenance funds be appropriately allocated. Many structural components of our infrastructure are affected by the corrosion process. By most accounts, corrosion is typically considered to provide only negative effects on structural systems. Argument can be made, however, that corrosion may in fact deter fatigue crack initiation in low stress cyclic loading. A testing procedure to investigate the effects of corrosion on the fatigue life of steel is established, completed, and evaluated. Twenty-four steel specimens are immersed in a saltwater solution and removed on intervals for repetitive loading. Once tested, the surviving specimens are returned to the saline solution. This process is continued until each specimen fails. The results show that 22 of 24 corroded specimens had higher mean fatigue lives than the mean non-corroded fatigue life when subjected to this intermediate corrosion and low stress range cyclic tension loading.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA329923
Entities
People
- Todd S. Waldvogel
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology