Corrosion Fatigue of Welded Joints in Marine and Naval Structures: A Review

Throughout the service life, marine/ naval structures experience environmental loading which cause cyclic stress variations in their structural members. These variations can cause fatigue cracking in welded structural details if they are improperly designed. Fatigue life estimation in such dynamic loading conditions is a complex problem and if corrosion along with other geometrical and environmental factors is taken into consideration, the complexity of the problem increases exponentially. The current work, reviews about fatigue failure in welded joints and different factors influencing fatigue life of welded joints with special focus on corrosion fatigue. The scope of the current review also includes a discussion on different fatigue life assessment techniques and methods to improve corrosion fatigue life of welded joints. The current review also presents a comparison of high strength low alloy (HSLA) welds to unalloyed carbon steel welds in terms of corrosion fatigue resistance and strength.