EFFECIS OF TEMPERATURE AND OVERLOAD RETARDATION ON CORROSION FATIGUE CRACK GROWTH OF HIGH STRENGTH STEEL

The fatigue crack growth rate (CGR) of ultra high strength steel 30CrMnSiNi2A in distilledwater at 18,35 and 55℃ were measured.It was confirmed that the temperature is strongly af-fected on the corrosion fatigue CGR of ultra high strength steel.An expression concerning theeffects of Δ K and temperature on the CGR was proposed.The fact that the apparentactivation energy (36.6 kJ/mol) resulted from regressive analysis of CGR data was similarto the activation energy of hydrogen diffusion in γ-Fe,strongly supporting the theory ofhydrogen-assisted crack growth.The overload retardation effect was greatly reduced in cor-rosion fatigue crack growth,especially at lower frequency,e.g.,0.1 Hz.This phenomenonmight be due to the increase of the SCC component of CGR after an overload.