Corrosion fatigue crack growth behavior of a structurally gradient steel for high-speed railway axles

Ao, N.*; Zhang, H.*; Xu, H. H.*; Wu, S. C.*; Liu, D.*; Xu, P. G.   ; Su, Y. H.  ; Kang, Q. H.*; Kang, G. Z.*

Considering the complex service environments that high-speed railway axles are subjected to, the fatigue crack growth (FCG) behavior of a structurally gradient axle steel with different pre-crack depths both in air and corrosive medium was investigated at a frequency of 5 Hz. The results indicated that in the high region, FCG rate was dramatically accelerated by corrosion, but the gap narrows as decreased. The accelerated corrosion FCG rate was a comprehensive result of the acceleration effect of the anodic dissolution, hydrogen-enhanced localized plasticity and the retardation effect of corrosion-induced crack-tip blunting. Despite the fact that the corrosion resistance gradually decreased as the pre-crack depth increased, the FCG rate in the corrosive medium gradually decreased. This was because fatigue loading played a more important role than corrosion in accelerating the corrosion FCG rate.