Influence of crack-tip residual stresses on environmentally assisted cracking

摘要

This paper focuses on the role of crack-tip residual stresses of compressive nature, generated by fatigue loading, in environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) of pre-cracked samples of high strength pearlitic steel subjected to localized anodic dissolution (LAD) and hydrogen assisted cracking (HAC). In both situations, compressive residual stresses improve the EAC behaviour of the steel, by delaying either the metal dissolution or the hydrogen entry, thus increasing the fracture load under aggressive environment.