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• Prior shot peening improves the CF limit of AO coated aluminum alloy by 50 %. • AO specimens exhibit different CF failure modes under low and high applied stress. • Substrate residual stress and microstructure affect the CF crack propagating path. • Substrate residual stress relaxes in distinct mode under low and high applied stress. Plain (anodic oxidation) and composite (prior shot peening + anodic oxidation) coatings were prepared to investigate their effects on the corrosion-fatigue (CF) property of 6082-T6 aluminium alloy in a 3.5 wt% NaCl aqueous solution. The results indicate that plain coated specimens exhibited similar CF properties to as-machined specimens at low applied stresses. However, under high applied stresses, the plain coating led to a preferential fracture and was unable to effectively prevent corrosion medium. Hence, the CF property of plain coated specimens was found to be inferior to as-machined specimens at high applied stresses. The synergetic effect of substrate residual stress and microstructure beneath the coating-substrate interface reduced the crack propagating rate in the initial stage by deflecting the crack at the grain boundary. Therefore, the CF property of composite coated specimens improved as a whole when compared with as-machined and plain coated specimens. Besides, under low applied stresses, the near-interface substrate residual stress of composite coated specimens occurred the relaxation due to the substrate crack propagation, while under high applied stresses, this was due to the synergetic effect of materials' local cyclic yield and plastic flow, as well as the substrate crack propagation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low, medium and high-intensity (0.19, 0.26 and 0.34 mmA) shot peening treatments and 0.34 mmA high-intensity shot peening combined with slight and severe polishing treatments were used as the pre-treatments to improve the fatigue property of micro-arc oxidation (MAO) coated 6082-T6 aluminum alloy, respectively. In consideration of the significance of substrate residual stress beneath the coating-substrate interface on MAO coated specimens' fatigue property, the substrate residual stress of various coated specimens was analyzed by the X-ray's powerful penetrability. Results indicate that the substrate residual stress state of MAO coated specimens is changed from tensile (+93 MPa) to compressive (−65 to −93 MPa) by the above pre-treatments, which is beneficial for inhibiting the crack initiation at the substrate or resisting the crack's further propagation from the coating into the substrate. Whereas, similar to the compressive residual stress induced by shot peening, the compressive substrate residual stress for prior shot peening + MAO composite coated specimens will also relax during the fatigue tests. In addition, the gradient compressive residual stress beneath the interface induced by prior shot peening reduce the crack propagating rate, thus improving the fatigue property of coated specimens; after the 0.26 mmA shot peening pre-treatment, the fatigue strength at 2 × 107 cycles of MAO coated specimens increases by 59.1 %. Finally, the effects of surface and interface roughness, substrate residual stress and in-depth compressive residual stress on the fatigue life of MAO coated specimens are further discussed. • Pre-treatments improve MAO coated Al alloys' fatigue life by 2.41 to 4.35 times. • Grain refinement of substrate increases MAO coatings' pore size and thickness. • Compressive substrate residual stress inhibits crack propagation beneath interface. • Compressive substrate residual stress relaxes by 8 % to 41 % at 104 fatigue cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]