ABSTRACT
For seawater, on the one hand, under relaxing loading conditions (R = 0), there is only negligible difference in fatigue crack propagation properties of NR in air and water (Selden 1998). Moreover, after a long-term immersion in seawater for 2.25 years, no difference (compared to air) in crack propagation properties has been observed for R = 0 (Selden 1998). Additionally, it has been shown that the fatigue life under relaxing loading conditions is similar for distilled water (Lake & Pond 1989) and for seawater (Le Gac et al. 2014) in comparison to air. On the other hand, under nonrelaxing loading conditions at R = 0.2, the fatigue threshold is higher and the crack propagation is slower in water compared to air regardless of the temperature (Legorju-Jago & Bathias 2002). In a recent study by Le Gac et al. (2014), a decrease in fatigue life was observed in seawater compared to air under non-relaxing loading conditions.
