Abstract: The acicular ferrite in austempered ductile iron (ADI) matrix around graphite was corroded preferentially in wet condition, promoting crack origination and propagation and resulting in the disappearance of ADI fatigue limit. ADI fatigue strength was gradually reduced with increasing the time of test and was reduced by 50% in wet condition at 10+7 cycles compared with the fatigue limit in dry condition. The fatigue strength variation of ferritic ductile iron in wet condition was similar to that of ADI. The ferritic ductile iron, however, has better corrosion resistance so that the fatigue strength was lowered only by 10% in wet condition at 10+7 cycles compared with the fatigue limit in dry condition. On the other hand, the fatigue limits of ADI and ferritic ductile iron were dropped by 32% and 25% in tap water dipping 480h/dry condition respectively compared with those in dry condition. The reduction of fatigue limit was attributed to corrosion pits formation correlated with stress concentration, resulting in origination and propagation of fatigue crack.

Key words: austempered ductile iron, water environment, corrosion