Fatigue Behaviour of Naval Steel Under Seawater Environmental and Variable Loading Conditions

The way to characterize the behaviour of a naval steel grade E36 subjected to the corrosive fatigue process is investigated. The tests were carried out by bending fatigue of plate specimens with thickness of 10 mm in the corrosive environment consisting of an aqueous solution of 3.5% of NaCl which is similar to seawater. Experimental results show that the principal mechanism of degradation of the superficial layer is based on the pit evolution, evidenced by electrochemical, micro and macro structural timely changes such as evolution of electrode potential, evolution of current density, polarization resistance, anodic and cathodic parameters, and dislocation density evolution.