4.2.1 Tensile characterization

For the tensile characterization, a specific setup was designed and manufactured. Deformations were recorded by means of an extensometer with a gauge of 12.5 mm placed on two of the fillets of the screw. This layout allows the possible failure of the head of the screw to be assessed. Tests were carried out on a screw in the as-received condition as well as on two of the screws previously submitted to the salt spray chamber, one of which had even suffered a small notch in the bottom of a fillet, in order to accelerate the corrosion process. The graph of Figure 16 shows the results of the tensile tests performed on the three samples, and the parameters obtained in each of the tests are summarized in Table 5. As can be seen, the effect of exposure in the salt spray chamber has not penalized the tensile mechanical behavior of the screw. Even the notch has had little influence, since the failure occurred in a different cross section.
