Alexandria Engineering Journal (2021) 60, 5205–5216

H O S T E D BY
Alexandria University

Alexandria Engineering Journal

www.elsevier.com/locate/aej
www.sciencedirect.com

Influence of stress concentration on fatigue life of

corroded specimens under uniaxial cyclic loading
A. Yosri a,*, A. Zayed a, S. Saad-Eldeen b, H. Leheta a

a
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering, Alexandria University, Egypt
b
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering, Port Said University, Egypt

Received 21 July 2020; revised 4 March 2021; accepted 2 April 2021

Available online 5 June 2021

KEYWORDS Abstract Corrosion has a significant deteriorative effect on fatigue life of aged ship and offshore
Fatigue; structures; hence reliable numerical fatigue life analysis of aged ship structures is crucial for safe
Corrosion modelling; operation. The reliability of the fatigue damage assessment techniques depends on the quality of
Stress concentration; the S-N curve which should account for corrosion degradation. In this paper, the different factors
Fatigue life; affecting the randomness of stress concentration and fatigue life of corroded specimens have been
S-N curve studied. It was demonstrated that the Stress Concentration, which results from the distinctive thick-
ness variation of the corroded specimens, significantly depends on the mean and minimum thickness
of the corroded plate. The equivalent thickness of a typical plate, which has the same fatigue
strength of the corresponding corroded one under the same cyclic load, was investigated. A time-
dependent S-N curve of corroded structures considering the deterioration of material mechanical
properties was proposed. The corroded surfaces were modeled using random spatial distributions
and the effect of corrosion degradation on the material mechanical properties was taken into
account. The numerically estimated fatigue life and the proposed S-N curve were compared with
experimental fatigue test results. The comparison showed good agreement between the experimental
results and the adopted approaches for fatigue life assessment.
Ó 2021 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria
University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction were proposed to predict the reduction of thickness due to cor-

rosion. Most of these models are based on regression analysis
Corrosion is a destructive attack of material by the surround- using gauged thicknesses data collected during the periodical
ing corrosive environment. It is regarded as a key factor that ship surveying events [1–4]. However, the corrosive environ-
dominates the service life of ship structures. Various models ment not only degrades the material thickness, but also deteri-
orates its material mechanical properties and its fatigue life
[5,6].
* Corresponding author.
The fatigue life of structures can be assessed by S-N
E-mail addresses: ahmed.yosri@alexu.edu.eg (A. Yosri), heba.lehe- approach or fracture mechanics approach. However, S-N
ta@alexu.edu.eg (H. Leheta).
approach is widely used and it is often the most suitable for
Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria
fatigue design purposes [7]. Four methodologies can be
University.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2021.04.004
1110-0168 Ó 2021 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
5206
adopted in fatigue damage calculation of marine structures
using S-N curve; deterministic fatigue analysis, simplified fati-
gue assessment, spectral fatigue analysis and time-domain fati-
gue analysis [7]. The accuracy of the estimated fatigue life
employing those approaches depends mainly on the adopted
S-N curve. However, the S-N curve shows a significant scatter
in the corrosive environment. Tran Nguyen et al [8] assessed
the fatigue life of a tanker deck structural detail based on spec-
tral fatigue approach. They compared the estimated fatigue life
using S-N curve in air (thickness deterioration was considered)
and in corrosive environment. The fatigue life using S-N curve
in corrosive environment was significantly less than using S-N
curve in air. However, the S-N curve in corrosive environment
is not available for all materials. The numerical investigation
of corrosion effect on S-N curve presented in this paper can
be useful for predicting S-N curves for corroded structures.
Garbatov et al. [6] performed tensile tests on small scale
aged specimens which were cut from an initially corroded
box girder. The experiments showed that there is a consider-
able reduction in the mechanical properties (modulus of elas-
ticity E, yield stress ry and tensile strength rt) due to
corrosion and sectional-area loss which has been observed in
extensive literatures [9–12]. Further, Garbatov, et al. [13] con-
ducted fatigue tests on 11 corroded specimens which were cut
from the same corroded box. The tests showed an excessive
fatigue life reduction due to surface roughness and high stress
concentration at pits. The surface topology of the corroded
specimens was captured by 3D scanner (ATOS); then the data
was analyzed to evaluate the corroded specimen thickness. The
procedures and thickness measurements data were described in
Garbatov, et al. [13]. The negligible levels of residual stresses in
the test specimens and hydrogen atoms in the laboratory sea-
water reduced the possibility of environmental cracking inter-
ference with the results of the tensile and fatigue tests [6].
Xu, Shan-hua et al. [14] studied, experimentally, the fatigue
life of 21 corroded specimens and compared them with 2 un-
corroded specimens. The fatigue life of the corroded specimens
was about 3% of the un-corroded ones. These corroded spec-
imens were subjected to two forms of corrosion. The dominant
one is general (uniform) corrosion and the second form is
localized pitting corrosion. This type of localized corrosion is
more dangerous than uniform corrosion because it is more dif-
ficult to detect, predict and design against [15]. It causes stress
concentration at pits tip where fatigue cracks always initiate.
Therefore, recently, considerable attention has been paid to
the effect of pitting corrosion on fatigue life.
The contribution of pit depth in the degradation of the fati-
gue life is more serious than the contribution of its diameter.
Ho Ahn, et al. [16] studied the effect of pit depth on fatigue life
and concluded that fatigue life decreases with increasing of pit
depth. DuQuesnay, et al. [17] investigated the effect of pit
depth on fatigue life of aluminum alloy coupons. It was stated
that the depth of the corrosion pit is a suitable parameter for
characterizing the corrosion damage and for predicting the
fatigue life of coupons. It was suggested that the size of the
deepest corrosion pit on the corroded surface can be used to
predict the fatigue life. The effect of corrosion pits on fatigue
life was also investigated in [18–20]. Despite the extensive trials
to investigate the effect of corrosion pits on fatigue life, there is
no straightforward equation that can accurately estimate the
life of each individual specimen.
A. Yosri et al.
The present paper investigates the major corrosion param-
eters that have a significant effect on the fatigue life of aged
structures. Random spatial distribution of the corrosion
wastage is employed to express the topology of FE corroded
specimens models. The FE models are employed to generate
regression equations defining the correlation between the stress
concentration factor and each of plate minimum thickness,
mean thickness and cross-section area. The obtained stress
concentration factors were adopted to numerically investigate
the fatigue life of the corroded specimens which is compared
with the results of the tests performed by Garbatov, et al.
[13] and Xu Shan-hua et al. [14]. Finally, the paper proposes
a novel approach to estimate a time-dependent S-N curve for
the corroded structures base material.
2. Material S-N curve
Fatigue properties of materials are described in terms of S-N
curve, fatigue limit and fatigue diagram. These properties are
evaluated using constant amplitude fatigue tests on un-
notched specimens with polished surface (Kt
1). The results
of these tests usually reflect the basic fatigue behavior of the
material. However, quite often, the fatigue behavior is
described by fatigue limit only as obtained from rotary beam
tests (mean stress Sm ¼ 0) [21]. Sometimes, especially for
new materials of unknown fatigue properties, the S-N curve
can be defined by 2 points; one at the fatigue strength S1000
(at 1000 cycles) and another at the fatigue endurance limit
Sf (at 107 cycles). To numerically study the fatigue behavior
of Garbatov, et al. [13] corroded specimens, SAE1015 S-N
curve is used [22]. The material corresponding to this curve
was tested at Rs ¼ Smin =Smax ¼ 1. It has the same mechanical
properties (SU ¼ 400 MPa; Yield stress ¼ 235 MPa) and
approximately the same chemical compositions of the cor-
roded specimens material. The S-N curve is defined by 2 points
at fatigue lives of 1000 cycle (S1000 =SU ¼ 84%Þ and 107 cycle
ðSf =SU ¼ 43:8%Þ [22]. Hence, the equation of the adopted
material S-N curve is given by N ¼ 1000ð336=Sa Þ14:144 , where
Sa is the stress amplitude in MPa corresponding to N cycles.
3. Finite element modeling of the corroded specimens
Complexity of corrosion nature results in non-uniform mate-
rial loss which cannot be predicted precisely. Therefore, vari-
ous approaches were adopted to simplify and represent the
corrosion degradation in different finite element analyses.
The most common corrosion mechanism is a uniform reduc-
tion of thickness as adopted in the classification society guide-
lines [23]. This approach tends to be useful if applied to a
global FE model. However, this approach will be imprecise
in local FE analysis. In order to investigate the effect of stress
concentration, arising from corrosion pits and thickness varia-
tion, a reliable method taking the corrosion topology into con-
sideration is required.
Different corrosion pit shapes such as conical, hemispheri-
cal, rectangular and cylindrical have been adopted to represent
localized corrosion in FE modelling [24–27]. Various literature
adopted the approach of converting thickness measurements
data obtained by laser or photogrammetric techniques into
3D FE model of approximately 0.01 mm accuracy [28]. Teix-
Influence of stress concentration on fatigue life
eira and Guedes Soares [29] modelled the corrosion wastage by
random spatial distribution to study the ultimate collapse
strength of corroded plates. Teixeira, Zayed, & Guedes Soares
[30] presented a reliability analysis of non-uniform corroded
pipelines under internal pressure. They considered the spatial
distribution of the thickness of the corroded pipeline repre-
sented by stochastic simulation of random fields. The random
fields of corrosion are discretized and the maximum internal
pressure is then assessed by finite element analysis. Different
approaches can be used to generate this random field as Kar-
hunen – Loeve expansion [31,32] and the approach suggested
by Li [33] which is based on the principles of optimal linear
estimation theory.
In the present paper, FE models for the 11 corroded spec-
imens of Garbatov, et al. [13] fatigue test were generated using
random spatial distribution for the corroded surface. A para-
metric 30-point grid of random thickness values, follows nor-
mal distribution, is used to generate a one-sided corroded
surface FE solid model, as shown in Fig. 1. Each point on
the grid has been referred to by its location. The
5 rows ðK : OÞ represent the vertical coordinate of each point,
while, the 6 columns ð0 : 5Þ represent the horizontal coordi-
nate. The aim of the parametric discretization of the corroded
surface is to generate a FE model with the same thickness prin-
cipal characteristics (minimum thickness tmin , maximum thick-
ness tmax , mean thickness tmean and material volume loss) of the
corresponding real corroded specimen. The volume loss or cor-
roded volume is defined as
Z LZ b
Vc ¼ hðx; yÞdxdy ð1Þ
0 0
where L and b are the corroded plate length and breadth, and
hðx; yÞ is the corroded depth. It is noteworthy that, the volume
loss or the specimen volume (intact volume without corrosion -
volume loss) can be obtained directly from the Finite Element
software. Table 1 shows the principal characteristics of the cor-
roded specimens.
To simulate the fatigue test, the FE specimen was fixed
from one end and an axial loading was applied on the opposite
end. The applied load is a uniform stress of 2/3 MPa. This
means that the nominal stress equals 1 MPa on the small
cross-section area at column 0 (as it has the same mean thick-
ness of the specimen ends). Hence, the stress concentration fac-
tor Eq. (2) will equal the maximum principal stress on the
corroded surface. A linear elastic material model was used.
The Modulus of elasticity and Poisson’s ratio are taken equal
to 200 GPA and 0.3, respectively.
Fig. 1 Finite element solid model of corroded specimen (K : O represents grid rows while 0 : 5 represents grid columns). Dimensions in
‘mm’.
5207
The accuracy of the stress concentration factor using Finite
Element Analysis FEA usually depends on the element size
[34]. Therefore, mesh convergence studies are carried out to
find the proper element size. The stress concentration of sev-
eral specimens with 4 different mesh sizes was investigated.
The element size ranged from 0.5 mm to 2 mm. The thickness
is divided into 5 elements for 0.5 mm mesh size, 3 elements for
1 mm mesh size and 2 elements for 1.5 and 2 mm mesh size.
The range of the SCF standard deviation for the different ele-
ment sizes was 0.02 to 0.065. Therefore, comparing with the
effect of corroded surface on the stress concentration factor;
neither the element size nor the number of elements in the
thickness direction shows a remarkable difference in the max-
imum principal stress of each specimen. In the subsequent
analysis, the 0.5 mm finite element size was adopted in the
evaluation of stress concentration factors arisen by corrosion
(Fig. 2).
The main distinction of the present approach is the presen-
tation of both general and localized corrosion in a direct and
simple way. The random spatial distribution used to represent
the thicknesses of the FE models will almost cover the pre-
dicted fatigue life of all the corroded specimens including the
minimum life. The different pitting corrosion modeling
approaches show high stress concentrations at pit tips or at
the circumference and consequently, the values of stress con-
centration factors sometimes don’t closely relate to the real
ones.
4. Stress concentration factor
More than 200 FE models, in total, were created in order to
comprehensively investigate and understand the major param-
eters that influence the stress concentration over the corroded
surfaces. The results obtained indicate that the non-uniform
corrosion damage along with the small mean thickness of the
corroded specimens play a vital role in the fluctuation of stress
concentration, especially at the deepest corrosion pit. This
stress concentration usually exceeds those from welded web
and geometrical notches [34]. The superposition of corrosion
pits on geometrical notches worsens the situation, especially,
if a deep corrosion pit is located at the geometrical notch.
The stress concentration is usually defined by stress concentra-
tion factor (Kt ). It is essentially an elastic concept, which is
defined as the ratio of the peak stress rpeak and the expected
nominal stress rnominal without any concentration of stresses
[21].
5208 A. Yosri et al.

Table 1 Principal characteristics of corroded specimens [13].

Specimen A6 A7 A8 A10 B9 B14 B17 C4 C11 C12 C13
tmax ‘‘mm” 3.08 3.07 3.23 3.07 3.22 3.23 3.14 3.28 3.29 3.09 2.98
tmin ‘‘mm” 1.5 1.52 1.62 1.48 2.13 2.1 2.09 2.04 1.83 1.96 2.02
tmean ‘‘mm” 2.44 2.39 2.53 2.4 2.72 2.69 2.6 2.53 2.57 2.61 2.52
Standard deviation ‘‘mm” 0.39 0.28 0.32 0.19 0.36 0.11 0.17 0.19 0.23 0.22 0.16
tmax = maximum thickness; tmin = Minimum thickness; tmean = mean thickness.

Fig. 2 Illustration of the typical mesh employed in the FE corroded models (0.5 mm element size).
rpeak
Kt ¼ ð2Þ
rnominal
Stress concentration factor can be obtained using FE anal-
ysis as adopted in this paper. Otherwise, there are various for-
mulas for the stress concentration factor, due to different stress
raisers, in the stress analysis handbooks as Peterson [35] and
Roark’s formulas [36]. Different formulas are also proposed
for the stress concentration factor at the corrosion pit as a
function of pit diameter D and depth ap as the following [37]:
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u Kt ¼ 0:0023Atm 2  0:258Atm þ 8:913
Kt ¼ 1 þ 1:25u
2
t  2 ð3Þ
1 þ aDp
The ratio D=ap in marine environment is usually equal 2 as
given by Jakubowski [37]; then Kt will equal 1.79. The presence
of the geometry fillet may increase the estimated Kt . Further,
the thin thickness of the plate/panel will intensely affect the
Kt values.
4.1. Fluctuation of stress concentration factor
Minimum thickness tmin , mean thickness tmean , and cross-
sectional area at the minimum thickness (Atm ) are important
factors that describe the severity of corrosion. To investigate
the correlation between the stress concentration factor Kt
and these factors, the 11 specimens of Garbatov, et al. [13] fati-
gue test are used. 110 models were created; 10 models for each
real corroded specimen. Each model has the same principal
characteristics of the corresponding corroded specimen as
mentioned earlier. The maximum principal stress of 2 arbitrary
FE specimens is illustrated in Fig. 3. It can be observed that
the maximum principal stress occurs far from the welded joint.
The correlation between Kt and tmin , tmean , (tmean -tmin ) and
Atm are illustrated in Fig. 4. It can be observed that as the
cross-sectional area at the minimum thickness (Atm ), minimum
thickness and mean thickness increase, the stress concentration
factor decreases. In contrast, the relative error decreases with
the increment of tmin , tmean and Atm . This trend is investigated
in the subsequent sections. The best regression curve for the
correlation between Atm and Kt is a 2nd degree polynomial as
described by Eq. (4) (R2 = 0.32).
ð4Þ
The R-squared value R2 reveals how closely the estimated
regression formula corresponds to the actual data. It seems
that as Atm increases the stress concentration factor becomes
more stable and vice versa. This phenomenon will be investi-
gated further in the subsequent sections. Eq. (5) is a linear
regression formula that describes the relation between
ðtmean  tmin Þ and the stress concentration factor (R2 ¼ 0:41).
Kt ¼ 1 þ 1:0783ðtmean  tmin Þ ð5Þ
It is noteworthy that Eq. (4) and Eq. (5) are only applicable
for a corroded plate/panel with mean thickness close to that of
the analyzed specimens where the thicknesses are measured
over a patch of 500 mm2 (w = 20 mm, L = 25 mm). There-
fore, the analysis should be done and interpreted with care.
4.2. Effect of minimum thickness location on SCF
The high scatter around the regression line between the stress
concentration factor and the minimum thickness is due to the
location of the minimum thickness which is a crucial factor
and has a significant effect on Kt . To investigate the impact
Influence of stress concentration on fatigue life
Fig. 3 Maximum principal stress distribution on the corroded surface of 2 arbitrary FE specimens.
Fig. 4 Correlation between stress concentration factor Kt and minimum thickness tmin , mean thickness tmean , (tmean - tmin ) and cross-
sectional area at minimum thickness.Atm .
of this factor on Kt , 15 FE models of the corroded specimen
A7 have been created with the same minimum thickness, max-
imum thickness and volume loss. The location of the minimum
thickness and the distribution of the corroded thicknesses have
been changed as illustrated in Fig. 5.
Fig. 6 illustrates the correlation between the minimum
thickness location and stress concentration factor. It may be
noticed that the highest Kt , which equals 2.61, occurs when
the minimum thickness of the corroded specimen is located
near the neck (column 1). As the minimum thickness is shifted
further from the neck, the stress concentration factor starts to
decrease. As the minimum thickness is shifted closer to the
welded web (column 4), the stress concentration factor restores
its highest value, especially, at the middle of the specimen
width (row M) where a premature fatigue failure and high scat-
ter in the S-N curve are expected. The high stress concentra-
tion near the neck is due to the combined effects of
corrosion damage and geometrical notch [21,35] . At column
5 the corrosion of the welded joint wasn’t taken into account.
The trends of the three curves in Fig. 6 show that the lowest Kt
occurs when the minimum thickness is located at the weld toe.
This may be due to the thickness reduction at the weld toe
which may act as burr grinding (technique used to reduce
5209
stress concentration at weld toes) that improves fatigue life
[23]. Fig. 7 illustrates the maximum principal stress distribu-
tion of specimen A7 where the minimum thickness is located
close to the neck (M,1). It can be observed from the stress con-
tours that there is a high stress concentration at the location of
the minimum thickness.
4.3. Steadiness of stress concentration factor
The previous discussions revealed higher fluctuation of stress
concentration at the smaller plate/panel thicknesses; while it
becomes more stable approximately at a mean thickness of
2.7 mm. Fig. 8 shows that the mean value and standard devi-
ation of Kt decrease with the increment of the minimum thick-
ness tmin ; then they become steadier at relatively high tmin
values.
Further analyses are conducted to obtain the correlation
between the mean thickness and Kt . 60 FE models were created
with the same corrosion topology but the thickness was
increased uniformly and gradually from the lower uncorroded
surface. By this way, the variation of Kt will be independent of
the corrosion topology of each specimen. Fig. 9 shows that the
stress concentration factor dramatically decreases with increas-
5210 A. Yosri et al.

Fig. 5 Different minimum thickness locations of the corroded specimen A7 (15 models).

Fig. 6 Correlation between minimum thickness location and stress concentration factor.

Fig. 7 Maximum principal stress distribution of specimen A7 where the minimum thickness is located near the neck (M,1).

ing the plate thickness; then at mean thickness of 5 mm it
becomes almost steady. This observation reflects that thin cor-
roded plate is more vulnerable to high stress concentration
than thicker one with mean thickness beyond 5 mm. More-
over, there is almost no difference between SCF of the plates
with and without welded web. Therefore, the effect of the
welded web on Kt can be ignored for the corroded thin plates.
Finally, FE analyses for 20 thick models were conducted.
The 20 models have a maximum thickness of 7 mm, random
mean thickness (5.9–6.3 mm) and random minimum thickness
(5.2–6.1 mm). The stress concentration factor fluctuated
between 1.35 and 1.96 with a mean value and standard devia-
tion of 1.47 and 0.11, respectively. These values may reflect the
stress concentration of thick corroded plates. It is noteworthy
Influence of stress concentration on fatigue life
Fig. 8 Correlation between average Kt and the minimum
thickness for the 11 corroded specimens (110 model). Error bars
represent standard deviations.
Fig. 9 Correlation between stress concentration factor and mean
thickness for the same corrosion topology of the corroded
specimens A6, A7 and A10 with and without web.
that all the maximum SCFs in this study are located away from
the welded joint and almost all of them were at or near the
minimum thickness location. This explains why all the failures
in Garbatov, et al. [13] fatigue tests initiated at corrosion pits
away from the welded joint.
5. Numerical fatigue life assessment
5.1. Fatigue life assessment using simple methods
The fatigue strengths S1000ðSm ¼0Þ and SfðSm ¼0Þ at 107 cycle, of the
material SAE1015, will represent the material fatigue behavior
of un-notched specimen with polished surface and under stress
cycle of mean value Sm ¼ 0. If a component or loading condi-
tion deviates from the standard test setup used to generate the
S–N data, it is necessary to modify the S–N curve to account
for these differences. These differences can be related to mean
stress, stress concentration due to corrosion damage ‘‘ Kt ‘‘,
surface roughness, reliability and component size [38].
The effect of mean stress is calculated using Gerber para-
bola [21]:
 2 !
Sm
SN ¼ 1   ðSN ÞSm ¼0 ð6Þ
Su
5211
where SN is the fatigue strength for a certain fatigue life N.
The stress concentration factor of the corroded specimens
has been calculated using FE analysis as in the previous sec-
tions. The micro-roughness of the corroded specimens, which
may reflect the impact of micro pits on fatigue life, is assumed
to have a high value of 250lm. However, its effect on low cycle
fatigue is neglected [21]. Due to the high scatter of the cor-
roded specimens fatigue life, a modifying factor CR = 0.8 is
introduced for a reliability level of 0.99. This factor ranges
from 1 for a reliability level of 0.5 to 0.62 for an extremely high
reliability level [21]. The size correction factor has been
ignored. Eqs. (7) and (8) combine the contribution of these fac-
tors for the fatigue strengths of the corroded specimens at 107
cycle Safk and at 103 cycle Sa1000k , respectively, where the sub-
script a indicates the stress amplitude.
 2 !
Sma SfðSm ¼0Þ
Safk ¼ 1  CR c ð7Þ
SU Kt
 2 !
Sma S1000ðSm ¼0Þ
Sa1000k ¼ 1 CR ð8Þ
SU £Kt
where c ¼ 0:8 is the surface roughness reduction factor corre-
sponding to 250lm micro-roughness and £ is a suggested fac-
tor to reduce the effect of stress concentration at low cycle
fatigue [21]. It was assumed equal to 0.8 whereas £  Kt > 1
[39].
Now the modified S-N curve of each corroded specimen
can be plotted using Safk and Sa1000k on log–log scale. The life
N of any corroded specimen at any stress amplitude Sa and
mean stress Sma can be estimated using the interpolation given
by Eq. (9) or directly from the modified S-N curve plot.
ð ð Þ
lnð10Þ 4lnðSa Þþ3ln Safk 7lnðSa1000k Þ Þ
N¼e ð Þ
ln Safk lnðSa1000k Þ
ð9Þ
5.2. Fatigue life of corroded plates
Fig. 10 illustrates a comparison between the results of fatigue
test performed by Garbatov, et al. [13], different fatigue cate-
gories of the nominal stress approach [13,40,41] and the results
of the simple method given by the above-mentioned equations,
Eqs. (7), (8) and (9), (110 numerical models). The fatigue cat-
egory of a typical T joint, according to the recommendations
of the International Institute of Welding IIW [42], is FAT class
80, where 80 is the fatigue strength in newton per square mil-
limeter at two-million cycles. However, it degrades under cor-
rosion to FAT class 50, considering the fatigue test only [13],
and almost to FAT class 40 considering the performed numer-
ical iterations. On the other hand, all failures, numerical and
experimental, occurred far from the welded joint, which
reveals that the impact of corrosion on fatigue damage of thin
plates is higher than the impact of welding defects. The loca-
tion of the numerical failures, see Fig. 11, has been detected
using ncode (commercial fatigue life-design code that relies
on the FE stresses from Ansys static structural). This high
degradation wasn’t observed in case of corroded plates of large
thickness. The numerical fatigue life analyses of 20 models
with tmean
6 mm show that they almost belong to FAT class
65. Nevertheless, under stress range below 130 MPa all the fail-
ures (20 models) were above FAT class 80 because the slope of
5212
Fig. 10 Comparison between results of fatigue test by Garbatov, et al. [13], different fatigue categories [42] and simple method (110
model).
the fatigue categories differs from that of the regression
formula.
Xu Shan-hua et al. [14] studied the fatigue life of 21 cor-
roded plates of approximately 7 mm mean thickness under
maximum stress of 260 MPa, 60% of their material ultimate
strength, and stress range of 234 MPa. 18 specimens out of
21 have an average fatigue life of 313,907 cycle with 114,225
cycle standard deviation. The remaining specimens failed after
more than 700,000 cycle. Fortunately, failures occurred above
FAT class 80 which means that the effect of corrosion will not
have a large impact on T joint fatigue category for plates with
thickness more than 7 mm. Clearly, further fatigue tests will be
required to validate these observations. The corroded speci-
mens mean thickness should range between 1.5 and 8 mm with
the same material and under different stress ranges.
In general, the fatigue damage of thin patches of corroded
plates should be studied carefully, as they usually have high
stress concentration. Otherwise, cracks may initiate prema-
turely as described earlier. These cracks may propagate to
thicker regions or to the adjacent welded joints causing serious
damage to the structure.
5.3. Effect of minimum thickness location on fatigue life
In the present study, ncode life-design tool has been used to
investigate the impact of minimum thickness location on fati-
gue life. The fatigue lives of the 15 FE models presented in
Fig. 5 were assessed. As expected, the minimum fatigue life
corresponds to maximum stress concentration factor and vice
Fig. 11 Fatigue life contours show the expected location of fatigue failure (ncode).
A. Yosri et al.
versa. Therefore, the trends of the three curves in Fig. 12 are
opposite to those in Fig. 6. The minimum estimated fatigue life
of the corroded specimens can be determined based on the fati-
gue life of A7(M,4), as illustrated in Fig. 12, where the failure
occurs far from the neck (geometric notch). The minimum esti-
mated fatigue life of the corroded specimen A7(M,4) at
Sr ¼ 120 MPa equals 146,800 cycle using ncode, 169,919 cycle
using simple method and 169,023 cycle based on fatigue test. If
the failure at the neck wasn’t ignored, the life would decrease
obviously, as in specimen A7(M,1), due to the combined effect
of corrosion damage and geometrical notch. In contrast, the
impact of the minimum thickness location is less significant
for large thickness plates.
5.4. Equivalent thickness of a corroded plate
The thickness at which an intact plate with polished surface
will have the same fatigue behavior of the corresponding cor-
roded plate under the same applied forces is defined here as the
equivalent uniform thickness teq . Hence, the intact specimen
will undergo an alternating stress Sa;eq higher than that applied
 
on the corroded specimen Sa;eq ¼ Sa  tmean =teq .
Fig. 13 (a) illustrates the correlation between the percentage
of a typical plate specimen equivalent thickness ðteq =tmean ) and
the mean thickness of the corresponding corroded plate. It
reveals that the stress range controls this correlation and
ðteq =tmean Þ varies from 47% to 83% when the stress range
increases from 120 Mpa to 200 Mpa (applied to the corroded
specimens), respectively. In contrast, the difference between
Influence of stress concentration on fatigue life 5213

Fig. 12 Correlation between minimum thickness location and fatigue life (using ncode) of specimen A7 at stress range = 120 MPa (K at
the edge of the specimen, M at the middle and L between them, refer to Fig. 1 and Fig. 5).

Fig. 13 (a) Correlation between the percentage of equivalent thickness (teq /tmean ) and tmean under 3 different stress ranges applied on the
corroded plate specimens (130 FE model). (b) Correlation between (teq /tmean ) and stress range for different stress ratios (160 FE model).
The trend curve is for Rs = 0.048.

the average ðteq =tmean Þof thick (tmean  5 mm) and thin
(tmean < 5 mm) plates under the same stress range is not higher
than 4%. Fig. 13 (b) illustrates the correlation between
ðteq =tmean Þ, stress ratio Rs ¼ ðSmin =Smax Þ and stress range for
160 FE model. The trend curve for a stress ratio Rs = 0.048
(2nd order curve with R2 = 0.97) begins where the corroded
plate has a fatigue life equal to the typical plate endurance
limit (107 cycle) and ends where both plates have 1000 cycle
fatigue life. At this point, the applied maximum stress on the
corroded plate is close to its ultimate strength. Moreover, as
the stress ratio increases (while stress range is constant), the
equivalent thickness (teq Þ increases and vice versa. Therefore,
the selection of the equivalent thickness, in order to be used
in FE analysis of complex structures, depends on both the
maximum and minimum applied forces.
5.5. Time-dependent S-N curve of corroded structures
Different formulas represented the effect of corrosion on the
material mechanical properties as the one proposed by Paik,
et al. [43]:
Ru ¼ ð1  Dm Þ0:73 ð10Þ
where Ru ¼ rup =ruo is ultimate strength reduction factor.
ruo ; rup are the ultimate tensile strength of the intact and pitted
plate, respectively. Dm ¼ ðAo  AP Þ=Ao is damage factor,
where AP , Ao are the smallest and intact cross-sectional areas,
respectively.
The deterioration of material mechanical properties was
also investigated by Garbatov, et al. [6]. They developed
regression formulas relating the degree of corrosion degrada-
tion (D %) and the deterioration of ultimate strength and
other material mechanical properties.
Sup ¼ 0:0068D2  2:3599D þ 400 ð11Þ
Fig. 14 outlines the deteriorated ultimate strength of each
specimen using Eq. (10) and the regression formulas of Garba-
tov et al. [6] Eq. (11).
This degradation of material mechanical properties affects
the fatigue life and causes wide fluctuation, particularly, at
high cycle fatigue. For instance, in Garbatov, et al. [13] fatigue
test, it oscillates from 169,023 to 915,974 cycles under the same
cyclic stress. Therefore, a new approach is proposed here to
estimate a time-dependent S-N curve which can be adopted
in fatigue life assessment of corroded structures. The slope of
the proposed S-N curve is suggested based on the numerical
results and Garbatov, et al. [13] fatigue test data. This S-N
5214 A. Yosri et al.

Fig. 14 Comparison between ultimate tensile strength of the corroded specimens based on Garbatov, et al. [6] Eq. (11) and Paik, et al.
[43] Eq. (10).

curve is then compared with Shan-hua Xu et al. [14] fatigue

tests. The S-N curve is introduced by shifting down the fatigue
strength at 1000 cycle (S1000 Þ to get the corresponding fatigue Table 2 Comparison between Shan-hua Xu et al. [14] fatigue
strength of the corroded plates S1000c , whereas, test and the new approach under stress range of 234 MPa.
S1000c ¼ S1000  Ru . Then, it is drawn, in a log–log plot, from Method fatigue life ‘‘cycle”
S1000c with an inverse slope K, so that the fatigue strength at
107 of the S-N curve can be determined based on K. The S- Shan-hua Xu et al. [14] fatigue test 128,905 (min)
Proposed S-N curve (K = 4) 74,683: 107,203
N curve is adjusted to account for the micro roughness correc-
tions. Eq (12) reveals the stress range at 107 cycles of the cor-
roded specimens and Eq (13) is the stress range at 103 cycles.
Publications that consider the fatigue life of corroded plates
The resultant S-N curve connecting both points
are limited in the literature. Therefore, the verification of the
(1000,SRcð103 Þ ) and (107, SRcð107 Þ ) in log–log scale represents
values of K is limited only to the results of two fatigue tests.
the minimum expected fatigue life due to corrosion. Both tests were conducted under high mean stresses using ini-
4 tially corroded steel specimens of ultimate strength between
SRcð107 Þ ¼ 2  10 k S1000 Ru c ð12Þ
400 and 460 MPa. Thus, further fatigue tests to upgrade the
verification of this study would be of interest.
SRcð103 Þ ¼ 2S1000 Ru ð13Þ
6. Conclusion
It can be observed from Fig. 15 that the value of K = 4 (red
line) will cover the fatigue failures of the thin corroded speci-
mens of Garbatov, et al. [13] fatigue test, while in Table 2, The present study gives a comprehensive assessment of stress
the value of K = 4 is slightly conservative compared to concentration over corroded surfaces and its consequences
Shan-hua Xu et al. [14] fatigue test. on S-N curve of corroded structures using random spatial dis-

Fig. 15 Illustration of the proposed S-N curve (K = 4) and the experimental [13] and numerical fatigue lives.
Influence of stress concentration on fatigue life
tributions approach. Various approaches have been adopted
to estimate the fatigue life of aged ship structural components.
The main causes of deterioration and highly scattered fatigue
life have been studied. The results of the numerical simulation
have been compared with fatigue tests results. It can be con-
cluded that:
– Random spatial distribution approach gives a reliable
assessment of stress concentration over the surface of cor-
roded structures. Therefore, it can be adopted in numerical
investigations of SCF of corroded ship structural detail.
– The fluctuation of SCF decreases with the increment of
mean thickness, whereas it becomes steadier almost at
5 mm mean thickness. Therefore, the S-N curve of corroded
plates depends on the mean thickness.
– Thin corroded specimens which may be used in fatigue tests
are extremely sensitive to the location of the deepest corro-
sion pit or minimum thickness. It was indicated that the
location of minimum corroded thickness relative to the
neck, edges and welded web has a significant effect on the
stress concentration factor and consequently on fatigue life.
– The fatigue life of transversely stiffened welded joint is usu-
ally controlled by the initiation of cracks at the welding toe
or throat. In thin corroded structures the effect of corrosion
on SCF is more significant which will control the fatigue life
of the plate regardless of the existence of this joint.
– The equivalent thickness of an intact plate, which has the
same fatigue strength as its corresponding corroded one,
depends on both the maximum and minimum applied stres-
ses on the corroded plate. Hence, using equivalent thickness
in variable amplitude loading fatigue analysis must be inter-
preted carefully.
– A simple approach has been proposed which can be used to
obtain a time-dependent S-N curve of corroded structures
accounting for the deterioration of material mechanical
properties.
– The outcomes of this paper show good agreement with the
available fatigue tests, despite that, further fatigue tests are
still essential.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
References
[1] C. Guedes Soares, Y. Garbatov, Reliability of maintained,
corrosion protected plates subjected to non-linear corrosion and
compressive loads, Mar. struct. 12 (1999) 425–445.
[2] A. Zayed, Y. Garbatov, C.G. Soares, Corrosion degradation of
ship hull steel plates accounting for local environmental
conditions, Ocean Eng. 163 (2018) 299–306.
[3] C.G. Soares, Y. Garbatov, A. Zayed, G. Wang, Corrosion
wastage model for ship crude oil tanks, Corros. Sci. 50 (2008)
3095–3106.
[4] A. Zayed, Y. Garbatov, C. Guedes Soares, Corrosion modelling
of single hull crude oil tanker subjected to multiple deterioration
environments, International Conference on Offshore Mechanics
and Arctic Engineering, 2007, p. 567–578.
5215
[5] R.E. Melchers, Probabilistic models for corrosion in structural
reliability assessment - Part 1: Empirical models, J. Offshore
Mech. Arct. Eng. 125 (2003) 264–271.
[6] Y. Garbatov, C. Guedes Soares, J. Parunov, J. Kodvanj, Tensile
strength assessment of corroded small scale specimens, Corros.
Sci. 85 (2014) 296–303.
[7] Y. Bai, W.-L. Jin, Marine Structural Design: Butterworth-
Heinemann, 2015.
[8] K.T. Nguyen, Y. Garbatov, C.G. Soares, Fatigue damage
assessment of corroded oil tanker details based on global and
local stress approaches, Int. J. Fatigue 43 (2012) 197–206.
[9] Y. Garbatov, M. Tekgoz, Soares C. Guedes, Experimental and
numerical strength assessment of stiffened plates subjected to
severe non-uniform corrosion degradation and compressive
load, Ships Offshore Struct. 12 (2017) 461–473.
[10] S. Saad-Eldeen, Y. Garbatov, Soares C. Guedes, Experimental
Assessment of the Ultimate Strength of a Box Girder Subjected
to Severe Corrosion, Mar. struct. 24 (2011) 338–357.
[11] S. Saad-Eldeen, Y. Garbatov, C.G. Soares, Residual strength of
a severely damaged box-girder with non-uniform and inter-
crystalline corrosion, 2015.
[12] Y. Zhang, Y. Huang, F. Meng, Ultimate strength of hull
structural stiffened plate with pitting corrosion damage under
unaxial compression, Mar. struct. 56 (2017) 117–136.
[13] Y. Garbatov, C. Guedes Soares, J. Parunov, Fatigue strength
experiments of corroded small scale steel specimens, Int. J.
Fatigue 59 (2014) 137–144.
[14] X. Shan-hua, Experimental study on fatigue behavior of
corroded steel, Mater. Sci. 584 (2013) 163–169.
[15] P.R. Roberge, Handbook of Corrosion Engineering. United
States of America: McGraw-Hill. New York: McGraw-Hill
Education; 2000.
[16] S. Seung-Ho Ahn, F. Lawrence Jr, M. Metzger, Corrosion
fatigue of an HSLA steel, Fatigue Fract. Eng. Mater. Struct. 15
(1992) 625–642.
[17] D.L. DuQuesnay, P.R. Underhill, H.J. Britt, Fatigue crack
growth from corrosion damage in 7075–T6511 aluminium alloy
under aircraft loading, Int. J. Fatigue 25 (2003) 371–377.
[18] R.M. Pidaparti, Correlation between corrosion pits and stresses
in Al alloys, Mater. Lett. 62 (2008) 4497–4499.
[19] B.M. Medved, Corrosion pit size distributions and fatigue
lives—a study of the EIFS technique for fatigue design in the
presence of corrosion, Int. J. Fatigue 26 (2004) 71–80.
[20] A. Yosri, A. Zayed, S. Saad-Eldeen, H. Leheta, Fatigue
Assessment of Aged Steel Specimens Under Uniaxial Cyclic
Loading, Fracture, Fatigue and Wear, Springer, 2020, pp. 523–
532.
[21] J. Schijve, Fatigue of Structures and Materials, 2nd ed:.,
Springer, 2009.
[22] B.E. Boardman, Crack Initiation Fatigue — Data, Analysis,
Trends and Estimation. Fatigue Conference, United States,
1982.
[23] DNVGL. Class guideline, Fatigue assessment of ship structures.
DNVGL-CG-0129, Edition; 2018.
[24] A. Rahbar-Ranji, Ultimate strength of corroded steel plates with
irregular surfaces under in-plane compression, Ocean Eng. 54
(2012) 261–269.
[25] X. Shi, J. Zhang, Soares C. Guedes, Numerical assessment of
experiments on the ultimate strength of stiffened panels with
pitting corrosion under compression, Thin-Walled Struct. 133
(2018) 52–70.
[26] M.M. Ahmmad, Y. Sumi, Strength and deformability of
corroded steel plates under quasi-static tensile load, J. Mar.
Sci. Technol. 15 (2010) 1–15.
[27] Y. Huang, Y. Zhang, G. Liu, Q. Zhang, Ultimate strength
assessment of hull structural plate with pitting corrosion
damnification under biaxial compression, Ocean Eng. 37
(2010) 1503–1512.
5216
[28] S.-H.X.Y.-d. Wang, Estimating the effects of corrosion pits on
the fatigue life of steel plate based on the 3D profile, Int. J.
Fatigue 72 (2015) 27–41.
[29] A.P. Teixeira, Soares C. Guedes, Ultimate strength of plates
with random fields of corrosion, Struct. Infrastruct. Eng. 4
(2008) 363–370.
[30] A. Teixeira, A. Zayed, G. Soares, Reliability of pipelines with
non-uniform corrosion, J. Ocean Ship Technol. 1 (2010) 12–30.
[31] R.G. Ghanem, P.D. Spanos, Stochastic finite elements: a
spectral approach: Courier Corporation, 2003.
[32] K. Woloszyk, Y. Garbatov, Random field modelling of
mechanical behaviour of corroded thin steel plate specimens,
Eng. Struct. 212 (2020) 110544.
[33] C.-C. Li, A. Der Kiureghian, Optimal discretization of random
fields, J. Eng. Mech. 119 (1993) 1136–1154.
[34] G. Méndez, R. Cuamatzi-Meléndez, A.A. Hernández, S.I.
Capula-Colindres, D. Angeles-Herrera, J.C. Velázquez, et al,
Correlation of stress concentration factors for T-welded
connections – finite element simulations and fatigue behavior,
Soldagem & Inspeção. 22 (2017) 194–206.
[35] W.D. Pilkey, Peterson’s Stress Concentration Factors, 2nd ed:.,
John wiley & sons, inc, 1997.
A. Yosri et al.
[36] W.C. Young, R.G. Budynas, Roark’s Formulas for Stress and
Strain, McGraw-Hill, 2002.
[37] M. Jakubowski, Influence of pitting corrosion on fatigue and
corrosion fatigue of ship and offshore structures, Part II: Load -
pit - crack Interaction Polish Maritime Res. 22 (2015) 57–66.
[38] Y. Lee, J. Pan, R. Hathaway, M. Barkey, Fatigue Testing and
Analysis, 1st ed:., Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005; 2005..
[39] H.J. Grover, Fatigue Strengths of Aircraft Materials: Axial-load
Fatigue Tests on Notched Sheet Specimens of 24S-T3 and 75S-
T6 Aluminum Alloys and of SAE 4130 Steel with Stress-
concentration Factors of 2.0 and 4.0: National Advisory
Committee for Aeronautics, 1951.
[40] A. Hobbacher, Recommendations for Fatigue Design of Welded
Joints and Components, Springer, 2015.
[41] W. Fricke, Fatigue and Fracture of Ship Structures,
Encyclopedia of Maritime and Offshore Engineering, 2017, 1–
12.
[42] Hobbacher, The new IIW recommendations for fatigue
assessment of welded joints and components–A comprehensive
code recently updated, Int. J. Fatigue 31 (2009) 50–58.
[43] J. Paik, J. Lee, M.J. Ko, Ultimate compressive strength of plate
element with pit corrosion wastage, J. Eng. Maritime Environ..
217 (2003) 185–200.