Abstract
For 50 years, researchers have considered how time-dependent
environmental effects can be included in cycle-dependent corrosion
fatigue (CF) crack growth rate (CGR) models. Common assumptions are that
cycle- and time-dependent contributions are separable, operate in
parallel, are non-interacting and that total environmental CGR can be
obtained by linear summation of cycle-dependent fatigue and
time-dependent (SCC) CGRs. However, considered here are data and
analyses that show that environmental CGRs may be greater than predicted
by superposition models. A phenomenological model is developed to
quantify the effect of crack-tip strain-rate due to fatigue
stress-cycles on electrochemical activity at a crack tip and thereby
synergistically increase crack growth rates by a cyclic-stress
corrosion-cracking (C-SCC) mechanism.