Effects of Martensite Content and Anisotropy on Hydrogen Fracture of Dual-Phase Steels

Boot, Tim; Leivseth, Eirik; Iniesta, Sara Fernández; Kömmelt, Pascal; Böttger, Amarante J.; Popovich, Vera

doi:10.3390/met15121333

This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Martensite Content and Anisotropy on Hydrogen Fracture of Dual-Phase Steels

by

Tim Boot

^1,*

,

Eirik Leivseth

¹,

Sara Fernández Iniesta

¹,

Pascal Kömmelt

²,

Amarante J. Böttger

¹ and

Vera Popovich

^1,*

¹

Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands

²

Tata Steel, Research & Development, PO Box 10000, 1970 CA IJmuiden, The Netherlands

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Metals 2025, 15(12), 1333; https://doi.org/10.3390/met15121333

Submission received: 24 October 2025 / Revised: 21 November 2025 / Accepted: 1 December 2025 / Published: 3 December 2025

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogen Embrittlement of Metals and Alloys)

Download Versions Notes

Abstract

This work studies the hydrogen embrittlement (HE) behaviour of Dual-Phase steels with varying martensite content. Steels with martensite contents of 25 ± 5, 50 ± 4 and 78 ± 7% were realised by intercritically annealing an as-received DP steel. These steels were charged with hydrogen and consequently subjected to an in situ slow strain rate tensile test to characterise the embrittlement. It was found that the steel with 50% martensitic content showed the most ductility in air, but the highest embrittlement of 86 ± 10%. The extent of embrittlement does not increase further from the point that martensite forms a continuous network in the microstructure. The presence of martensite on the surface is linked to the formation of brittle crack initiation sites in these steels. Furthermore it was found that the anisotropic banded structure in the annealed steels promotes brittle crack propagation along the direction of banding, which originates from rolling process. This research shows that anisotropic martensite distributions as well as surface martensite should be avoided when developing rolled steels, to maximise HE resistance.

Keywords: hydrogen embrittlement; dual-phase steel; martensite; fractography; tensile testing

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Boot, T.; Leivseth, E.; Iniesta, S.F.; Kömmelt, P.; Böttger, A.J.; Popovich, V. Effects of Martensite Content and Anisotropy on Hydrogen Fracture of Dual-Phase Steels. Metals 2025, 15, 1333. https://doi.org/10.3390/met15121333

AMA Style

Boot T, Leivseth E, Iniesta SF, Kömmelt P, Böttger AJ, Popovich V. Effects of Martensite Content and Anisotropy on Hydrogen Fracture of Dual-Phase Steels. Metals. 2025; 15(12):1333. https://doi.org/10.3390/met15121333

Chicago/Turabian Style

Boot, Tim, Eirik Leivseth, Sara Fernández Iniesta, Pascal Kömmelt, Amarante J. Böttger, and Vera Popovich. 2025. "Effects of Martensite Content and Anisotropy on Hydrogen Fracture of Dual-Phase Steels" Metals 15, no. 12: 1333. https://doi.org/10.3390/met15121333

APA Style

Boot, T., Leivseth, E., Iniesta, S. F., Kömmelt, P., Böttger, A. J., & Popovich, V. (2025). Effects of Martensite Content and Anisotropy on Hydrogen Fracture of Dual-Phase Steels. Metals, 15(12), 1333. https://doi.org/10.3390/met15121333

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Article metric data becomes available approximately 24 hours after publication online.

Article Menu

Effects of Martensite Content and Anisotropy on Hydrogen Fracture of Dual-Phase Steels

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI