Hydrogen Embrittlement of Type 304L Stainless Steel

Hydrogen Absorption Induced Slow Crack Growth in Austenitic Stainless Steels for Petrochemical Pressure Vessel Industries

“…In the present studies for example, slow crack growth was observed at ~65% of the air fracture stress when the type-304L steel was stressed while being cathodically charged in the 1.5 N sulfuric acid solution. This may be significant to mention, that no slow crack growth was observed in the stable type 309 material [22].…”

“…Thus no slow crack growth alloy, and the specific role of the α' martensite has not been established, but several possibilities exist. The lattice diffusivity of hydrogen in the BCC form is ~10 -3 cm 2 /S and ~10 -12 cm 2 /s for the FCC phase [18][19][20][21][22][23], and therefore the martensite formed ahead of the advancing crack may simply provide a rapid-diffusion path for hydrogen atom to pass through. In this regard diffusivity of ~5 x 10 -8 cm 2 /s, is fully compatible with transport in the α' but not in the ᵞ phase.…”

“…Because of their importance as corrosion-resistant materials, the behavior of austenitic stainless steels in such harsh environments has attracted considerable attention. This work has demonstrated that significant ductility losses occured when the material is tested dynamically after being internally charged with hydrogen [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] or while being exposed to a gaseous hydrogen environment [8][9][10][11][12][13]. Delayed failures by hydrogen absorption have been reported under static stresses, and one of the objectives of the present work was to investigate the possibility hydrogen absorbtion induced slow crack growth.…”

“…This subject has become controversial [6][7][8][9][14][15][16][17], due in part to comparison of data obtained from alloys which were not well characterized. For example, it cannot be assumed that a nominally stable steel will always consistently be stable, or, conversely, that a nominally unstable grade will always under go strain-induced martensitic transformation, or that a steel which is stable under one type of deformation will be stable under a different mode.…”

Internal Reversible Hydrogen Embrittlement of Austenitic Stainless Steels Based on Type 316 at Low Temperatures

“…However, it is well known that most austenitic stainless steels suffer from HE. HE of stable austenitic stainless steels such as type 310 and 309 stainless steels has been studied [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] and it was found that they are susceptible to IRHE 4,5,[7][8][9][10][11]13,14) but not to HGE. 8,11,[16][17][18][19][20][21] The IRHE of stable austenitic stainless steels, in which no strain-induced α' martensitic transformation occurs during deformation, can be attributed to the low stacking-fault energy of the steels, which inhibits the occurrence of cross slips and induces slip planarity.…”