Scripta Materialia 49 (2003) 711716

www.actamat-journals.com

Eect of pitting corrosion on very high cycle fatigue behavior

Q.Y. Wang
a
b

a,*

, N. Kawagoishi b, Q. Chen

Department of Civil Engineering and Mechanics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan
Received 9 December 2002; received in revised form 30 May 2003; accepted 17 June 2003

Abstract
In this study, the eect of pre-existing corrosion pits on the fatigue behavior of 7075/T6 aluminium alloy in very long
life range and in the near threshold regime was investigated by using piezoelectric accelerated fatigue test. The results
indicate that the presence of pre-existing corrosion pits, produced by 1-day, 4-day, and 7-day immersion in salt water
signicantly reduces the fatigue life of the aluminum alloy by a factor of 10100.

2003 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Pitting corrosion; Very long life fatigue; 7075/T6 aluminum alloy; Near-threshold crack growth

1. Introduction
Pitting (localized) corrosion leading to fatigue
crack initiation and crack growth is considered to
be among the most signicant damage mechanisms in aging structures [13]. Prior-corrosion
related fatigue process consists mainly of pitting
nucleation, pit growth, transition from pitting to
fatigue crack initiation, short crack growth and
long crack growth [35]. Pits almost always initiate
at some chemical or physical heterogeneity at the
surface, such as inclusions, second-phase particles,
aws, mechanical damage, or dislocations. The
aluminum alloys contain numerous constituent
particles, which play an important role in corro-

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-28-85404890; fax: +86-2885405534.
E-mail addresses: wangqy@scu.edu.cn, wangqy2000@
hotmail.com (Q.Y. Wang).

sion pit formation [2]. It is well known that corrosion pitting has a strong eect on fatigue life of
structural Al alloys [15]. Under the interaction of
cyclic load and the corrosive environment, cyclic
loading facilitates the pitting process, and corrosion pits, acting as geometrical discontinuities,
lead to crack initiation and propagation and then
nal failure. The presence of localized corrosion
pits modies the local stress and may ultimately
shorten fatigue life and lower the threshold stress
for crack initiation and propagation.
Although much fatigue data of aluminium alloys have been published, the most experimental
data in the literature have been limited to fatigue
lives up to 107 cycles. In many industries (such as
aircraft, automobile, railway and oshore structures), however, the required design lifetime of the
components often exceeds 109 cycles. In recent
years there has been a development of interest in
very long life fatigue between 107 and 1010 cycles
for various high strength steels [610] and very

1359-6462/$ - see front matter
2003 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S1359-6462(03)00365-8

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Q.Y. Wang et al. / Scripta Materialia 49 (2003) 711716

slow fatigue crack growth (FCG) between 10
9

and 10
12 m/cycle [11]. Moreover, it is well known
that many materials, including aluminium alloys,
do not show a conventional fatigue limit in SN
curves between 106 and 107 cycles [613]. Fatigue
failure could occur beyond 107 cycles. But only
limited studies of very long life fatigue and near
threshold FCG behavior of aluminium alloys have
been performed.
In this study, the eect of pre-existing corrosion
pits, produced by prior immersion in 3.5 wt%
NaCI solution for various durations, on fatigue
behavior of aluminium alloys in very long life
range and in the near threshold regime was investigated by using piezoelectric accelerated fatigue test at 19.5 kHz.

Table 2
Chemical composition (wt%)
Si

Mn

Cu

Mg

Zn

Cr

Fe

0.10

0.03

1.47

2.56

5.46

0.20

0.25

2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Material and specimen
The material used in this study was an extruded
Al alloy 7075/T6. The mechanical properties and
the chemical composition are shown in Tables 1
and 2, respectively.
Plate dog-bone fatigue specimens designed to
resonate longitudinally at 19.5 kHz were machined
with single edge notch having length of 1 mm,
radius of 0.5 mm and stress concentration factor of
3.05. The resonance length of the specimen was
calculated using an analytical method [12]. All
specimens were 114.6 mm in length and 16 mm in
width, with a nominal gage thickness of 3.0 mm.
All the specimen surfaces were mechanically
polished with 300-, 400-, 600-, and 1200-grade
papers. For pitting corrosion studies, the polished
specimens were immersed in a physiological saline
solution (3.5% NaCl) for 1, 4, and 7 days, respectively. The typical appearance of the pits on
the surface of the specimens after exposure for
various durations is shown in Fig. 1. The pits are
random in size and irregular in shape. The
Table 1
Mechanical properties
E (GPa)

q (kg/m3 )

rT (MPa)

rY (MPa)

72

2800

764

691

Fig. 1. Typical appearance of the pits on the surface of the

specimens exposed to salt solution for various durations.

observed maximum pit sizes for specimens exposed

for 1, 4, and 7 days are about 30, 50, 60 lm, respectively.
2.2. Fatigue testing
Fatigue testing was carried out in a piezoelectric
resonance system operating at 19.5 KHz with zero
mean stress (R
1). The testing facility has been
described in detail elsewhere [12,13]. The vibration
loading amplitude was controlled during the test.
FCG for constant- and variable-loading conditions was monitored using a traveling microscope
(magnication of 200), following by use of plastic
replicas and microscopy observations. A cellulose
acetate lm having length of about 15 mm and
width of 5 mm was rst wetted with acetone and
carefully put onto the mid surface of the specimen.
Following evaporation of the acetone, the lm was
peeled o for further treatment and developing the
replicas. The replicas with the inverse copy of the
specimen surface were examined using microscopy.

Q.Y. Wang et al. / Scripta Materialia 49 (2003) 711716

713

Fatigue tests were interrupted at certain numbers of cycles in order to make replicas of the mid
surface of the specimens. For each specimen test,
more than 30 replicas were taken for detecting
crack initiation and monitoring crack growth. The
minimum detectable crack length is within 0.05
mm. Fig. 2 shows examples of optical micrographs
of replicas of the small cracks initiated from the
notch in the near-threshold FCG test.
Two series of fatigue tests were conducted in
this investigation. In order to understand how the
various exposure durations aect the fatigue life,
the rst test was carried out under a constant load
amplitude at an initial stress amplitude of 80 MPa
to obtain crack length against number of cycles
data. As the second, FCG experiments were performed under variable stress intensity amplitude to
obtain crack growth behavior of small and large
cracks in the near threshold regime. The FCG
curves were obtained by shedding the load in small
steps until the threshold crack growth rates (less
than 10
10 m/cycle) were reached. Then, the load
might be increased again to obtain higher crack
growth rates. The stress intensity factor at the
crack tip was approximated by the formula [14]:
r
a
E
p
K
f
U
1
0
1
m2 a
w

3. Results and discussion

where
a
a
 a 2
 a 3
f

3:98
0:64
1:73
w
w
w
w
 a 4
1:96
w

3.2. Near-threshold fatigue crack growth behavior

E is the Youngs modulus, m is the Poisson ratio, U0

is the vibration amplitude, a and w denote the
crack length and the specimen width.

Fig. 3 shows the measured responses of crack

growth length a to the number of cycles N . The 7day, 4-day, and 1-day pre-corroded specimens
failed at an average of 7.2 106 , 9.0 106 , and
5.9 107 cycles, respectively. Under the same
loading amplitude, there is no crack growth detected for the non-corroded specimens up to
5 108 cycles. The aN curve indicates that the
presence of pre-existing corrosion pits, produced
by 1-day, 4-day, and 7-day immersion in salt water
signicantly reduces the fatigue life of the aluminum alloy by a factor of 10100. Sankaran et al.
[15] have shown that prior corrosion pitting can
shorten the fatigue life of 7075/T6 aluminum alloy
about 10 times when cycles to failure was <106
cycles. So, not surprisingly, the presence of corrosion pits can cause a 100 times decrease in the
fatigue life in super-long life range. As well known,
there is a prolonged period of fatigue crack initiation life due to high cycle fatigue [7]. Moreover,
no signicant dierence is found in lifetime between 4-day and 7-day pitted specimens. The slight
dierence is from the crack initiation life.

Usually, the threshold stress intensity factor

range, DKth , is dened as that the stress intensity
factor range at which the crack growth rate is less
10

Crack length(mm)

3.1. Eect of exposure durations on fatigue life

7-day
4-day
1-day
0-day

6
4
2
0
1.E+05

1.E+06

1.E+07

1.E+08

1.E+09

Number of cycles

Fig. 2. Optical micrographs of small cracks in near-threshold

FCG tests.

Fig. 3. Eect of exposure durations on fatigue life.

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Q.Y. Wang et al. / Scripta Materialia 49 (2003) 711716

than 10
10 m/cycle, i.e., crack grows 1 mm within

107 cycles. In case where fatigue crack propagation
life primarily depend on the early stages of crack
growth, it is critical to understand the near
threshold FCG behavior. The crack growth behavior of small and large cracks in non-corroded
aluminum alloy 7075/T6 is shown in Fig. 4. It is
noticed that the crack growth rates of small cracks
(0.11.0 mm in length) are greater than those of
large cracks at almost the same stress intensity
factor range, DK, and some small cracks may grow
at DK values below the large crack threshold in the
near pthreshold
FCG regime. For DK < 5

MPa m, large cracks develop a FCG threshold

and small cracks accelerate crack growth rates.
Fig. 5 compares the results of FCG of small and
large cracks between 4-day- and 7-day corroded
specimens in aluminum alloy 7075/T6. The dierence in FCG rates due to exposure durations is not
signicant. The slight dierence is from a local
eect of surface pitting [5]. At longer exposures,
more pits formed on the corroded surface and
sucient pits could contact the subsurface constituent particles causing further corrosion and
increase of pit size. FCG might not occur solely by
a single crack, but involved multiple-site pitting (or
crack) coalescence. The higher pit density (and the

Fig. 5. FCG behavior of small and large cracks in 4-day, and 7day corroded Al 7075/T6.

bigger pit size) on the corroded surface, the higher

stress concentration factor has increased because
pre-existing pits might act as small notches.
It is noticed that the FCG rates is much lower
for the
stress intensity factor range, DK, below 5
p
MPa m. Slightly higher small crack growth rates
compared to the large crack are also observed. The
crack growth rates
DK curve shows
p a slope regime between DK 5 and 10 MPa m, in the near
threshold crack growth rates between 10
9 and
10
10 m/cycle, where there is a smalllarge crack
transition. As shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the threshold
stress intensity factor ranges found in pitted
specimens are lower than the threshold in noncorroded conditions. The presence of corrosion
pits can decrease the threshold stress intensity by
about 20%.
3.3. Fractography

Fig. 4. FCG behavior of small and large cracks in non-corroded

Al 7075/T6.

The fracture surfaces of tested specimens were

investigated by the scanning electron microscope
(SEM). Fig. 6 shows fatigue fracture surfaces of a
7-day pitted specimen during FCG. A translamellar cleavage fracture mode was observed in
near-threshold crack growth (Fig. 6a). Large microcleavage facets were formed during crack

Q.Y. Wang et al. / Scripta Materialia 49 (2003) 711716

Fig. 6. SEM micrographs showing two fracture modes. (a)

Quasi-cleavage fracture in near-threshold crack growth, (b)
ductile fracture surface at high crack growth rate.

propagation. However, at high crack growth rate,

the crack was found to propagate in a ductile
mode (Fig. 6b).
The corrosive attack can produce a network of
corrosion on the metal surface. As shown in Fig.
7a, it may also penetrate deep into the metal [16].
Intergranular corrosion (Fig. 7b), preferential
corrosion along grain boundaries, was observed in
the subsurface of the FCG tested specimen with 7day prior corrosion.
One of the pre-existing pits, produced by 7 days
immersion in salt water, was shown in Fig. 8. The
pit located in the cleavage initiation area, and very
possibly played a role in fatigue crack initiation.
The pit has a hemispherical shape with a size of
about 65 lm in length and 20 lm in depth.

4. Conclusions
1. Fatigue properties are signicantly aected by
the pre-existing corrosion pits, specially, crack

715

Fig. 7. SEM micrographs showing intergranular corrosion in

the subsurface of the fatigue tested specimen with 7 days preexposure to salt water.

Fig. 8. Fatigue crack initiation at a pre-existing pit in Al-alloy

7075/T6.

initiation in the very long life range. Extensively

developed corrosion pitting due to longer exposures accelerates crack initiation and promotes
multiple-site damage. FCG rates increased slightly
with increasing surface corrosion pitting because

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Q.Y. Wang et al. / Scripta Materialia 49 (2003) 711716

surface pre-existing pits might act as stress concentrators [5,17]. Fatigue crack may initiate from
pre-existing pits followed by two (cleavage and
ductile) fracture modes during crack growth. The
experiment results shows that FCG rates of small
cracks in the aluminum alloy are greater than those
of large cracks at almost the same stress intensity
factor range, DK, and some small cracks may grow
at DK values below the large crack threshold in the
near threshold crack growth regime.
2. Fatigue failure process under prior-corrosion
eects represented as the total number of cycles,
comprises the cycles needed to form a critical pit
crack transition size and the cycles needed to
propagate the crack to failure. The ongoing work
is aimed to develop a quantitative evaluation of
the formation and growth of pits, pit-crack transition, and crack growth processes.

Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the support of
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science under
the Grant-JSPS-P01042, and Chinese SRF for
ROCS.

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