Investigation of corrosion behavior, tensile and cyclic fracture mechanism of EH36 steel welded joints

Abstract

This work systematically revealed the static-dynamic corrosion failure behavior of EH36 joints under air, simulated seawater and cathodic protection in seawater. The result indicated that the seawater environment affected tensile performance slightly but acted a critical role in the fatigue behavior. Specifically, the corrosion pit and cyclic stress would respectively induce high-stress concentration and corrosion current density, significantly decreasing the fatigue strength of joints. The application of cathodic protection on joints in seawater would decrease the tensile behavior, but would continuously provide electrons for the surface and crack tip to prevent corrosion damage, improving fatigue performance of EH36 joints.