New York Paper - Corrosion of Metals as Affected by Time and by Cyclic Stress (with Discussion)

Results of investigation of corrosion-fatigue of metals at the U. S. Naval Engineering Experiment Station, Annapolis, Md., have been discussed by the writer in several recent paper~.1,2,3,4 In those papers references were also given to the work of Haigh in 1917.= Efforts by the writer to obtain a better understanding of some of the factors involved in corrosion-fatigue finally developed into a general investigation of the effect of time and cyclic stress on corrosion of metals. Corrosion-fatigue of Metals As described in the papers mentioned, rotating-cantilever specimens, conically tapered so that the stress is nearly uniform over a length of about 1.5 in., were subjected to simultaneous fatigue and corrosion. For this purpose a stream of water was diagonally applied so as to sweep the specimen from the outer to the inner fillet and surround the stressed surface with water. The fresh water is a calcium carbonate water, the composition of which has been given in a previous paper.2 The salt water is Severn River water having a saline content about one-third that of sea water. The previous papers described results obtained with ferrous and non-ferrous metals. The experiments showed that even slight corrosion simultaneous with fatigue may cause failure at nominal stresses far