Author(s)

J. Toribio & V. Kharin

Abstract

This paper analyzes the influence of cyclic residual stresses (generated by fatigue pre-cracking) on the stress corrosion behaviour of high strength pearlitic steel subjected to localised anodic dissolution and hydrogen assisted cracking. The effects of crack-tip plastic straining and residual stresses of a compressive nature, generated by fatigue loading, are elucidated by using both a simple theoretical estimation and a high-resolution numerical modelling of the near-tip stress-strain field during the previous cyclic loading and the posterior monotonic loading. It is shown that cyclic crack tip plasticity improves the stress corrosion behaviour of the steel in the two regimes of cracking. In the respective cases, the effects are supposed to be due to

Keywords