The Effect of Cyclic and Static Tensile Stresses on the Tribocorrosion Behavior of Austenitic and Duplex Stainless Steels in Marine Environment

Abstract Many tribological components are exposed to wear in a corrosive environment, these are usually structural elements, also supporting applied static and/or cyclic tensile loading. There are no research and test methodologies available for evaluating the multidegradation mechanisms of such complex degradation scenarios. In the present work, a new test apparatus has been developed to reproduce the multidegradation phenomena at lab scale, by exposing test specimens to any combination of cyclic and static 4-point bending and reciprocating sliding contact in a corrosive environment under electrochemical control. The multidegradation tests show that the level of applied cyclic or static surface strain significantly changes the material loss. The tribocorrosion test setup for these multidegradation testing has been performed at open circuit potential (OCP). The reciprocating sliding action of alumina counterparts (Ø 4.76 mm) has been established with an applied normal force of 70 N on each ball at a sliding frequency of 1 Hz. The multidegradation tests have been conducted for 2 hours at maximum stress of 90% and 50% of yield strength for the cyclic testing and 90% and 10% of the yield strength during static straining. This paper shows the effect of fatigue and tensile stresses on a marine tribocorrosion application.