Effects of pitting corrosion on fatigue life of aluminum alloy Y12CZ based on initial discontinuity state

Based on initial discontinuity state (IDS) of material, a preliminary analytical model was presented to evaluate the effect of interaction of pitting corrosion and fatigue loading on the residual fatigue life of aluminum alloy LY12CZ. A life prediction was carried out using constant and variable amplitude loading for various pitting corrosion levels, and the prediction agreed reasonably with the available test data. The results suggest that the combination of a pit and IDS can be treated as the initial crack size. Pitting corrosion causes a significant decrease in fatigue lives with small corrosion depths. But the effect of pit on fatigue life is gradually reduced with increasing pit size. A pit with a constant depth can be applied to the model for long exposure structure. A preliminary recommendation for the pit depth is about 1 mm for LY12CZ. At last the effect of multiple-site corrosion damage (MSCD) on fatigue life was also studied, and the result shows that MSCD can decrease substantially fatigue life compared with that of a single crack.