This work focused on predicting fatigue crack arrest impacts on mild steel as a function of electroplating dosage and treatment time. Iron plating was investigated to provide cathodic protection to the steel substrate while causing arrest of crack propagation. ASTM A36 and E399 compact tension specimens were plated with a Mohr’s Salt formulation at room temperature. Prior to treatment, the specimens were pre-cracked at 3 Hz of load cycling in lab air with a nominal peak stress intensity factor of 20 ksi√in. During plating treatments, the cracks were loaded statically to a stress intensity factor of 2 ksi√in. Following treatment, crack arrest was observed and sustained for up to 600,000 load cycles with applied stress intensity factors at or above 20 ksi√in. Additional treatments provided after crack propagation had resumed, also yielded additional crack arrest. Treatments were most effective for producing crack arrest during the early and middle stages of classic Paris Law regime behavior. Treatment effectiveness was found to be dependent upon several variables including ionic mobility, crack length, stress intensity factor during cyclic loading, and the applied plating dosage.
