Experimental study on mechanical properties and low-cycle fatigue behaviour of stainless steels subjected to salt spray and dry/wet cycle

This paper presents experimental studies on the mechanical properties and low-cycle fatigue behaviour of corroded austenitic stainless steel (304) and ferritic stainless steel (430). Tensile and low-cycle fatigue tests are conducted on 28 specimens. The corrosion process of the specimens is finished by using salt spray and dry/wet cycle tests. In the tensile tests, the key parameters of the constitutive model proposed by both Rasmussen and Gardner were obtained for austenitic stainless steel (304) and ferritic stainless steel (430). In the low-cycle fatigue test, the relationships of the stress amplitude and fatigue life of the specimens were obtained. The relationships of the mass loss, corrosion rate and cross-sectional area loss with the corrosion time are established. The influences of corrosion pits and fatigue cracks on the low-cycle fatigue behaviour of these two materials are studied through both macro and micro fracture morphology analysis. It is found that compared with the salt spray, the dry/wet cycle condition causes more degradation on the strength and fatigue life of the ferritic stainless steel (430). The stress concentration and notch effect of corrosion pits are the main reasons for the degradation in fatigue life of ferritic stainless steel (430). Moreover, current codes Eurocode 3 (EC3), Australian Standard (AS), BSI Standard (BSI) and DNV Standard (DNV) could not provide accurate fatigue life assessment for these two materials after salt spray and dry/wet cycle corrosions.