Monitoring of corrosion fatigue cracking using harmonic analysis of current responses induced by cyclic stressing

The response of a current induced by sinusoidal stress within an elastic deformation was measured during corrosion fatigue tests to monitor the course of corrosion fatigue cracking and to evaluate corrosion fatigue damage. The test material was an iron bar subjected to a passive potential in borate buffer solution containing 5 mM NaCl. Harmonic analysis was used to analyze the current response and to extract valuable parameters that were associated with crack initiation and corrosion fatigue damage. The current response before crack initiation consisted of only the fundamental current without any harmonics. Higher harmonic amplitudes of the current response, especially the second and third harmonics, appeared and increased after crack initiation. In addition, the phase shift between the strain and the fundamental current response to the sinusoidal stress decreased from nearly 90° towards 0° as harmonic amplitudes of the current response increase. The results indicate that the amplitudes of the harmonic current response and the phase shift are the optimal parameters for detecting crack initiation and evaluating corrosion fatigue damage.