Corrosion fatigue of steel under cavitation erosion generated intermittently in 3% salt water (results of two-stage tests with and without cavitation erosion)

Two-stage fatigue tests with and without cavitation erosion were performed in 3% salt water. When corrosion fatigue with cavitation erosion (erosion fatigue) is changed to corrosion fatigue during a test, the fatigue life decreases remarkably and the total number of stress cycles to failure becomes smaller than that for tests involving erosion fatigue only. In the reverse case, when corrosion fatigue conditions are changed to erosion fatigue conditions, the fatigue life increases slightly compared with the life expected from the linear damage law (Miner's law). The variation in fatigue strength can be explained by the characteristics of crack propagation in each environment. From these results, it is presumed that the corrosion fatigue strength of the material exposed intermittently to cavitation erosion decreases remarkably.