Random corrosion characteristics of high strength steel wire after 18 years of service and the numerical reconstruction method

This work aims at studying the random corrosion characteristics and residual strength of high strength steel wire after 18 years of service. Salt-spray accelerated corrosion test was carried out on the aged specimen, the mass loss characteristic was determined, the corrosion morphology of steel wire was obtained and reconstructed by 3D optical scanning and the corrosion characteristics were quantified by statistical analysis. Comparing with the corrosion behavior of the steel wire without service, it indicated that the corrosion of aged steel wire is much severe, and the damaged zinc coating and the accumulated fatigue damage should be responsible for it. The ultimate breaking strength of the corroded steel wire was then determined by tensile test, and the fracture morphology was characterized by SEM. A numerical reconstruction method of random corroded wire was proposed, which can be used for the residual strength assessment of aged corroded wire, and systematic para-metric studies was also carried out.