Corrosion fatigue life prediction of crude oil storage tank via improved equivalent initial flaw size

•EIFS is improved for corrosion fatigue life prediction.•Corrosion fatigue life prediction model is developed via I-EIFS.•Corrosion fatigue life of COST is predicted with proposed model.•The validity of life prediction method for COST is verified by comparing service life. Corrosion fatigue is identified as the main failure mechanism for structures working in severe corrosive medium subjected to cyclic rotating bending fatigue, for example crude oil storage tank (COST). Emphasis is placed on the study of corrosion pit formation and the development of cracks from pits. An improved equivalent initial flaw size (I-EIFS) is proposed for corrosion fatigue life prediction. Based on the concept of equivalent initial flaw size (EIFS), pitting corrosion and small crack growth are equivalent to a part of long crack growth process in corrosion fatigue process. Pitting and crack propagation are quantified throughout the fatigue loading thereby allowing a model to be developed that included the stages of pit development, pit-to-crack transition and crack growth in order to predict the fatigue life. A corrosion fatigue life prediction case is adopted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. Based on the proposed model, failure analysis and stress calculation are performed to predict the corrosion fatigue life of COST, which provides a method for the life prediction of COST. The validity of proposed method is verified by comparing the service life of COST.