Scientists from Sophia University in Japan have shown the mechanisms by which hydrogen absorption via exposure to hydrogen gas and corrosion compromises the properties of high-strength steel.
The findings shed light on the types of defects found in the crystalline structure of fractured HS steel at the atomic scale. This knowledge will help us understand hydrogen embrittlement better and possibly pave the way to methods to suppress it.
High-strength (HS) steel, while a promising material for next-generation vehicles, suffers from hydrogen embrittlement, which degrades its mechanical performance.
The research team including Professor Kenichi Takai from Sophia University used an an ingenious alternative to the conventional tensile tests used to assess the mechanical properties of materials, managing to produce almost-pure IG fractures on embrittled HS steel samples.
In turn, this enabled them to study these fractures with unprecedented detail. The study, which was co-authored by Dr Takahiro Chiba of the Graduate School of Sophia University (now at Nippon Steel Corporation), was published in Volume 223 of Scripta Materialia on January 15, 2023.
In conventional tensile tests for metals, a dog-bone-shaped sample is put under increasing tension until it breaks. As stated above, this causes multiple types of fracture besides IG fractures, such as quasi-cleave fractures, dimples, and shear lips. To prevent this, the researchers came up with an original mechanical test involving repeated loading and unloading of the sample during hydrogen charging.
“Our load reduction test was designed to progressively reduce the material’s ultimate tensile strength (UTS). We achieved this by repeatedly removing the load applied to the specimen immediately after the tensile stress reached the UTS under hydrogen charging and the re-applying it,” explains Prof. Takai.
As confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, the proposed load reduction test successfully produced pure IG fractures. The team believes this happens because, after each unloading step, hydrogen atoms are given enough time to fill up the new cracks generated in the material to keep advancing the fracture exclusively along the grain boundaries.
To gain insight into the lattice defects present right below the fracture, the researchers carefully extracted small pieces of the broken sample very close to the fracture surface and used them for lower-temperature thermal desorption spectroscopy (L-TDS).
This technique involves observing the rate of desorption of a gas (hydrogen, in this case) from the material at different temperatures, which in turn provides information about the number and types of defects present in it.
“L-TDS enabled us to distinguish hydrogen trapping sites on the atomic scale,” said Prof. Takai.
“Obtaining such basic knowledge about the lattice defects formed in the local area just below an IG fracture surface will provide important clues to understand and potentially suppress hydrogen embrittlement in HS steel.”
In a final set of experiments, the team performed various analyses on SEM images to determine whether the formation of the vacancies and vacancy clusters observed via L-TDS involved plasticity.
These analyses revealed that some vacancies coalesced into nano-voids, and that the martensite laths and blocks in the regions around these voids were heavily distorted and difficult to tell apart. This suggests that local plastic deformation occurs right below the IG fracture caused by hydrogen embrittlement.
Overall, the findings of this study will help materials scientists understand hydrogen embrittlement in HS steel better. With luck, this will pave the way to new methods to suppress it and enable the safe use of HS steel in hydrogen-powered vehicles.
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