A review on the corrosion fatigue strength of surface-modified stainless steels

Materials are often exposed to simultaneous actions of corrosive environment and repeated stress, which sometimes leads to a significant decrease in corrosion fatigue strength. Several attempts have been made in the past to investigate the fatigue cracks initiation and propagation process across different materials. However, the current knowledge is insufficient to address the combined response of corrosion reaction and repeated stress on the fatigue properties of stainless steels (SS) especially when they are subjected to surface treatments. The present paper reviews the relevant past work done to date on the fatigue and corrosion fatigue strengths of nanostructured SS. The corrosion fatigue strengths of SS can be improved by the combined effects of surface treatments and the associated compressive residual stresses. The corrosion fatigue mechanism reviewed in this paper explains in detail the major factors involved in predicting the fatigue life behaviour including residual stress, loading frequency, microstructures, work-hardening, surface topography, surface treatment processing parameters, and fracture surface. For future works, the factors that could improve the corrosion fatigue behaviour of nanostructured SS were also discussed in detail.