This paper presents experimental investigation and numerical modeling of the effect of compressive residual stress on the corrosion fatigue life of a low carbon steel. A fatigue life test methodology based on double notched tensile test specimens is proposed. A new plasticity model is proposed for accurate simulation of compressive residual stress and calibrated to experimental stress-strain curves obtained for low carbon steel. The proposed model is implemented as a user-material in the ANSYS Workbench Finite Element Analysis program and utilized in plastic analysis and fatigue assessment. Corrosion fatigue test results are discussed and compared to numerical predictions