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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of fatigue life reduction of 2024 Al alloy for aerospace components due to the corrosive (exfoliation) environment. Both standard fatigue tests on prior corroded samples and fatigue tests conducted with the samples in corrosive solution are developed to define some guidelines for the inclusion of such effect in design and to improve aircraft life management.

The effect of corrosion is taken into consideration, introducing specific concentration factors into the life estimation relationship. Differences between fatigue in corroded specimens and fatigue in presence of corrosive environment are emphasized. No crack propagation is considered. Two alternative procedures are considered in the analysis: “a-procedure” based on maximum stress calculated on un-corroded sample section; “b-procedure” based on stress calculated on final residual section, including corrosion.

Related concentration factors are derived and compared by the experimental results with the aid of an original proposed a “power law”. Typical power law (square kt) has been derived to cope with the coupling effect of fatigue and corrosive environment.

The original approach developed in the paper is based on few samples. For this reason, the conclusions are addressed as tendency behaviour.

The combined effect of fatigue load acting in presence of corrosive environment reveals an important reduction in fatigue life that cannot be determined by means of classical fatigue tests performed on prior corroded samples.

Specific design updating procedure can be determined to cope with ageing of structures during service improving structural integrity.

The derivation indicates a substantial equivalence of the considered two procedures both in the case of prior corroded samples and in combined situation. This tendency is consistent with the available data results. Original analytical relations are introduced to manage such kind of combined effect revealing consistency of data also if few samples were tested.

7075-T6 is the most widespread structural aluminium alloy due to its high mechanical strength. However, use of this alloy in critical aeronautic, maritime, and automotive sectors is limited by the susceptibility of T6 treatment to cracking and pitting corrosion. To improve fatigue behaviour in aggressive environments, several authors have proposed the use of different coatings to protect the substrate. Studies have investigated the application of thin hard coatings on light alloys by physical vapour deposition (PVD). Different contributions of residual stresses, thermal modification of the substrate, and mechanical interaction between the coating and aluminium substrate were investigated. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the rotating bending fatigue behaviour (R=−1) of 7075-T6 PVD diamond-like carbon (DLC)-coated specimens in air and in a corrosive environment. Tests were conducted at different applied stresses. Scanning electron micrographs of the fracture surface are provided to investigate the influences of mechanical and environmental driving forces on the failure mechanism.

The paper conducted an experimental study of the fatigue resistance of DLC coatings on a 7075-T6 substrate for corrosion protection at long and short fatigue lives, which includes rotating bending fatigue tests, step-loading fatigue test procedure, tests in aggressive environment (methanol), tests at high and low fatigue lives, analysis of the fracture surface, and analysis of the driving forces.

Tests performed in air showed that the coating anticipates crack nucleation for high applied loads, whereas for lower loads, the difference among fatigue curves decreases. This result is very interesting from an industrial standpoint because the obtained material shows improved corrosion and wear resistance, without the fatigue resistance loss generally associated with hard coatings. The methanol environment accelerates crack nucleation and propagation, resulting in a sensible deterioration of the fatigue behaviour. A minimum soaking time seems to be necessary before the damaging effect of the environment begins. The coating has a certain protective effect against the environment, but this protection is insufficient for the specimen to achieve fatigue limits beyond those of the uncoated specimens. This deficiency can be related to small pores or defects in the coating, which allow contact between the substrate and the environment. Further tests are necessary to verify whether there exists a load under which the fatigue behaviour of the coated specimens is better than that of the uncoated specimens. Crack nucleation due to fatigue occurs close to the outer surface for all observed samples. For coated samples tested at the lowest stress level, crack nucleation seems to be located below the surface. This observation means that premature coating cracking, which characterises the nucleation mechanism at higher loads, did not occur at lower stress levels. The fracture surface of uncoated samples was clearly damaged by the aggressive solution, justifying the poor fatigue resistance.

The obtained data do not represent actual S-N curves, which would necessitate a larger number of tests with proper statistics. Nevertheless, some indications of the DLC effects on 7075-T6 specimens in air and methanol environments can be deduced. The step-loading technique seems to be critical for tests in corrosive environments, probably because the total soaking time in the corrosive environment is generally higher than it is for the single-run test.

The originality of the paper lies in the application of the step-loading test procedure to quickly detect the mechanical and chemical driving forces that control the damage and structural integrity of light alloys components in very aggressive environments.

Most supersonic aircraft were manufactured using 2A70 aluminum alloy. The purpose of this paper is to study the corrosion mechanism and fatigue behavior of an aircraft in a semi-industrial atmospheric corrosive environment, alternating effects of corrosion and fatigue were used to simulate the aircraft’s ground parking corrosion and air flight fatigue.

For this purpose, the aluminum alloy samples were subjected to pre-corrosion and alternating corrosion-fatigue experiments. The failure mechanisms of corrosion and corrosion fatigue were analyzed using microscopic characterization methods of electrochemical testing, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Miner’s linear cumulative damage rule was used to predict the fatigue life of aluminum alloy and to obtain its safe fatigue life.

The results showed that the corrosion damage caused by the corrosive environment was gradually connected by pitting pits to form denudation pits along grain boundaries. The deep excavation of chloride ions and the presence of intergranular copper-rich phases result in severe intergranular corrosion morphology. During cyclic loading, alternating hardening and softening occurred. The stress concentration caused by surface pitting pits and denudation pits initiated fatigue cracks at intergranular corrosion products. At the same time, the initiation of multiple fatigue crack sources was caused by the corrosion environment and the morphology of the transient fracture zone was also changed, but the crack propagation rate was not basically affected. The polarization curve and impedance analysis results showed that the corrosion rate increases first, decreases and then increases. Fatigue failure behavior was directly related to micro characteristics such as corrosion pits and microcracks.

In this research, alternating effects of corrosion and fatigue were used to simulate the aircraft’s ground parking corrosion and air flight fatigue. To study the corrosion mechanism and fatigue behavior of an aircraft in a semi-industrial atmospheric corrosive environment, the Miner’s linear cumulative damage rule was used to predict the fatigue life of aluminum alloy and to obtain its safe fatigue life.

The purpose of this study is to describe the environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) of AISI 316L stainless steel as bare and coated cases in several corrosion environments. The main purpose of this study is to extend the lifespan of 316L material under corrosive fatigue in sodium chloride environments.

Fatigue tests carried out by using a Schenk type plane bending fatigue machine made by Tokyokoki Co. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to observe the fracture surfaces and tested specimen surfaces. The micro-Vickers hardness of specimens was measured by using a PC-controlled Buehler–Omnimet tester.

Under reciprocating bending condition (R = −1) the behavior of 316L SS bare samples and 316L SS coated with Al-5%Mg samples were investigated comparatively at room temperature in ambient air and in several corrosion solutions. The results obtained from the data showed that Al-5Mg coating procedure significantly stabilized the 316L SS even in the most aggressive environment 5 per cent NaCl solution as compared with bare samples.

Al-5Mg coating showed a stable structure under the corrosion liquids used in the experiments. The coating material served as a stable barrier between the base material and the corrosion fluid, thus ensuring a tightness even in long-term tests below the endurance limit.

In summary, it can be found that the current research on the simulation of natural atmospheric dry–wet alternating accelerated corrosion mainly focused on the study of electrochemical corrosion process and the study of corrosion rate; the micro-pre-corrosion mechanism of materials in this environment, especially for materials. The specific effects of fatigue and fracture performance still lack detailed research. Accordingly, this study aims to more realistically simulate the effect of natural atmospheric corrosion environment on the corrosion resistance and fatigue performance of aircraft skin.

In this study, the uniaxial strain control method was used to test the fatigue performance of pre-corrosion samples under simulated natural atmospheric corrosion using MTS809 tensile-torque composite fatigue machine. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy spectrum analysis, atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis were used. Fatigue fracture, corrosion morphology and corrosion products were analyzed.

The results show that the deep corrosion pit caused by pre-corrosion environment leads to multi-source initiation of crack; the fatigue life of pre-corroded sample decreases by about one-half, chloride ion invades the material and promotes intergranular corrosion; life prediction results show that the natural atmospheric corrosive environment mainly affects the plastic term in the Manson–Coffin formula resulting in a decrease in fatigue life.

Innovative experimental schemes and materials are used and the test temperature and relative humidity are strictly controlled. The corrosion failure mechanism of 2A70-T6 aluminum alloy under alternating wet and dry accelerated corrosion environment and its influence on fatigue behavior were obtained.

Corrosion‐fatigue testing using precracked specimens has, in recent years, become an important means of evaluating structural alloys for service in corrosive environments. The recent emphasis towards the use of precracked specimens for corrosion‐fatigue testing is based upon several factors. First, there is the general recognition that metallic structures of all types are prone to contain cracks and that the growth of such cracks can play a crucial role in overall structural performance; and secondly, a fracture mechanics technology basis has been developed for quantitatively assessing crack growth phenomena. The coexistence of a visible problem area and a means of attacking the problem has stimulated considerable activity in this field of endeavour.

This paper aims to characterise the hardness, tensile properties, corrosion behaviour and fatigue properties (in air and in a 3.5 per cent NaCl solution) of aluminium 6061-T651 in the as-received and as-welded conditions.

Aluminium 6061-T651 plate material, prepared with double-V or square butt joint preparations was welded using semi-mechanised or mechanised pulsed gas metal arc welding. Magnesium-alloyed ER5356 or ER5183 filler material or silicon-alloyed ER4043 filler wire was used. The material was characterised in the as-supplied and as-welded conditions, and fatigue tests were performed in air and in a 3.5 per cent NaCl solution. The fatigue results were compared to the reference fatigue design curves for aluminium published in Eurocode 9 – Part 1-3.

Significant softening, attributed to the partial dissolution and coarsening of precipitates, grain growth and recrystallisation during welding, was observed in the heat-affected zone (HAZ) of the 6061-T651 welds. During tensile testing, failure occurred in the HAZ of all 6061 welds tested. Welding reduced the room temperature fatigue life of all specimens evaluated. In 6061 welds, failure occurred preferentially in the softened HAZ of the welds. The presence of a corrosive environment (a 3.5 per cent NaCl solution in this investigation) during fatigue testing reduced the fatigue properties of all the samples tested. Corrosion pits formed preferentially at second phase particles and reduced the overall fatigue life by accelerating fatigue crack initiation.

The fatigue properties of welded aluminium structures under dynamic loading conditions have been studied extensively. Welding is known to create tensile residual stresses, to promote grain growth, recrystallisation and softening in the HAZ, and to introduce weld defects that act as stress concentrations and preferential fatigue crack initiation sites. Several fatigue studies of aluminium welds emphasised the role of precipitates, second phase particles and inclusions in initiating fatigue cracks. When simultaneously subjected to a corrosive environment and dynamic loading, the fatigue properties are often adversely affected and even alloys with good corrosion resistance may fail prematurely under conditions promoting fatigue failure. The corrosion-fatigue performance of aluminium welds has not been systematically examined to date.

Corrosion cracking A metal fails due to corrosion fatigue if it cracks while being subjected to repeated or alternating tensile stresses in a corrosive environment. If the corrosive environment is removed, the metal will not fail through fatigue, even after a very high number of cycles, providing the tensile stress is below the fatigue limit.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the corrosion fatigue behavior and mechanism of 6005A aluminum alloy and welded joint.

Electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) were adopted to characterize the microstructure of 6005A aluminum alloy and welded joint. Through potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and corrosion fatigue experiments, the corrosion fatigue behavior and mechanism of 6005A aluminum alloy base metal and welded joint were studied.

The results show that the corrosion fatigue crack initiation of 6005A aluminum alloy base metal and welded joint is mainly caused by the preferential anodic dissolution and hydrogen concentration in the areas with inclusions and welding defects.

The research is an originality study on the corrosion fatigue behavior and mechanism of 6005A aluminum alloy and welded joint.

Since 1917 there has been much research to find means of eliminating or reducing the harmful influence of corrosion on fatigue behaviour. The solution, in principle, is to prevent the corrosive attack on the metal surface and thus achieve something like the air fatigue strength. The studies reported here help to counter‐balance the much greater number of investigations involving various metallic types of protective coatings. They were initiated to provide information on the possibilities of using organic coatings to protect coil springs.