Environmentally Assisted Cracking of Alloy 7050-T7451 Exposed to Aqueous Chloride Solutions

The stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behavior of 7050-T7451 plate material was investigated in short-transverse direction performing constant load and constant extension rate tests. Smooth and notched tensile specimens were permanently immersed in substitute ocean water and in an aqueous solution of 0.6 M NaCl + 0.06 M (NH₄)₂SO₄. Alloy 7050-T7451 exhibited high SCC resistance in both synthetic environments. However, conducting cyclic loading tests, environment-induced cracking was observed. Applying a sawtooth waveform, notched tensile specimens were strained under constant load amplitude conditions at constant displacement rates ranging from 2 × 10⁻⁶ to 2 × 10⁻⁴ mms⁻¹. The stress ratio R = σ _min/σ _max was 0.1 with maximum stresses of 300 and 400 MPa. When cyclically loaded in substitute ocean water, notched specimens failed predominantly by transgranular environment-induced cracking. Striations were observed on the cleavage-like facets. The number of cycles-to-failure decreased with decreasing displacement rate. A slope of 0.5 was obtained by fitting the logarithmic plot of number of cycles-to-failure vs nominal loading frequency, indicating a hydrogen embrittlement mechanism controlled by diffusion.