Fracture Parameters of a Perpendicular Crack with Its Tip Close to a Corrosion Pit

Abstract

Pitting corrosion is an important kind of damage of metal specimens. Therefore, this paper is devoted to investigation of mutual interaction of a corrosion pit and a fatigue perpendicular crack. A rectangular specimen subjected to remote tensile loading was modelled via finite elements and basic fracture parameters were calculated for various distances of the pit from the crack. Based on the obtained dependences of KI , KII (stress intensity factors for normal and shear modes) and B (parameter biaxiality) on the relative crack lengths (a/W), it can be summarized that the corrosion dimple is significant for the crack propagation only if the relative crack length is very short in comparison with the corrosion pit. Then, the corrosion pit can affect as a protection against the crack propagation.