Hydrogen-Assisted Fatigue Propagation in Corner Cracks at Holes Located in Plates under Tensile Loading

Abstract

In this study, hydrogen-assisted fatigue propagation (a kind of corrosion fatigue phenomenon) in corner cracks at holes located in plates under tensile loading was studied, the results compared with those obtained for propagation by fatigue in air. To this end, numerical modeling was carried out for the case studied to evaluate the advance of the crack front based on the Paris equation and the stress intensity factors (SIFs) obtained by Raju and Newman. The results showed that the cracks tended toward a preferential propagation path in their growth, the effect of the presence of the stress concentrator on the preferential fatigue propagation path being more pronounced in the crack growth by fatigue in air than in the crack growth by corrosion fatigue.