Font Size: 

The application of standard mathematical techniques for the solution of masstransport equations, in the case of advection that is caused by the pulsatingmovement of crack walls in the case of corrosion fatigue, can be very timeconsuming. This problem arises, due to the requirement that the time step thatmust be employed, when solving the non-stationary equations, must besignificantly smaller than the period of oscillation. For overcoming these timeconsuminglimitations, a simple algorithm, which is based on eliminating theconvective term from the equations of mass transfer in the pulsating slab by asuitable change of variables, was developed. It is shown that, in many cases, it ispossible to use codes that were developed for describing stress corrosion cracking,i.e. for the case of mass transfer without advection, to predict corrosion fatiguecrack propagation rate, by simply substituting an effective crack length