Corrosion fatigue crack initiation behavior of stainless steels

Abstract Corrosion fatigue crack initiation behavior of various kinds of stainless steels is reviewed mainly on the basis of the author’s experimental results. The role of corrosion pit in the corrosion fatigue crack initiation process of martensitic, ferritic, austenitic, duplex and precipitation-hardening stainless steels is briefly summarized. The recent investigation of an electrochemical noise measurement method is demonstrated for 12%Cr martensitic stainless steel and 2.5%Mo containing high strength austenitic stainless steels. Finally a couple of future problems to be solved in corrosion fatigue crack initiation are touched on briefly.