Fatigue strength is a basic mechanical property of a structural material and must be maintained in the application of the material for its continuous satisfactory service. In this paper, results of proper laboratory corrosion tests conducted to investigate effects of coating treatments with each of three clear bitumen samples got from important Nigerian bitumen sources on corrosion fatigue strength of the steel is presented. 165 ASTM fatigue specimens were produced from the steel and used for the tests. 15 were not coated while each bitumen sample was used separately to coat a set of 10 specimens eac to the same coating thickness. This was repeated four times using the remaining 120 specimens but to four different coating thicknesses. Five un-coated specimens and a set of five coated specimens with each bitumen sample for each coating thickness were corroded continuously for 50 days in an environment in which the corrosive factors of one of the worst natural corrosive environments-the tropical surf beach, were simulated with reasonable higher aggressiveness. Overall analysis of effect of the corrosion through appropriately determined fatigue strength values of each of all corroded specimens and, the others for control; indicates that any bitumen as-obtained from the sources will inhibit the corrosion to over 82.45% for a coating thickness of over 1.46mm in any natural environment. The availability of the bitumen resources in the country for the protective purpose is substantial and dependable for several years.
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