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Review on the Mechanical Behavior of Metallic Materials under Hydrogen Environment – Experiment and Simulation

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A special issue of Metals (ISSN 2075-4701). This special issue belongs to the section "Metal Failure Analysis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 26751

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Thorsten Michler

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Guest Editor

Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, Woehlerstrasse 11, 79108 Freiburg, Germany
Interests: hydrogen effects in metallic alloys

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Within the European Commission (and most likely also in all other major industrial regions), road maps and implementation plans are currently developed to reduce green house gas emissions and hydrogen plays a predominant role in this strategic vision. From an engineering point of view, it is known for over one century that hydrogen deteriorates the mechanical properties of most structural metallic alloys, especially steels, also known as “hydrogen embrittlement”. Although the fundamental understanding of the hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon has increased over the years, and especially within the last 20 years, there are still fundamental questions to be answered. In order to assess the safe use of components especially in gaseous hydrogen environments, this special issue seeks the submission of review papers describing the current knowledge especially in the following fields:

Influence of environmental parameters (e.g. pressure, temperature, gas purity) on mechanical properties
Influence of test parameters (e.g. strain rate, frequency) on mechanical properties
Influence of microstructure on physical (e.g. diffusivity, permeability, trapping) properties
Embrittlement mechanisms
Simulation methods
Standardization of materials testing
Standardization of component design for use in H2 applications

Dr. Thorsten Michler
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Metals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Hydrogen embrittlement
Steel
Simulation
Fatigue life
Crack growth
Standardization

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 27443 KiB

Open AccessArticle

In-Situ Hollow Sample Setup Design for Mechanical Characterisation of Gaseous Hydrogen Embrittlement of Pipeline Steels and Welds

by Tim Boot, Ton (A. C.) Riemslag, Elise (T. E.) Reinton, Ping Liu, Carey L. Walters and Vera Popovich

Metals 2021, 11(8), 1242; https://doi.org/10.3390/met11081242 - 5 Aug 2021

Cited by 28 | Viewed by 5587

Abstract

This work discusses the design and demonstration of an in-situ test setup for testing pipeline steels in a high pressure gaseous hydrogen (H₂) environment. A miniature hollow pipe-like tensile specimen was designed that acts as the gas containment volume during the test. Specific areas of the specimen can be forced to fracture by selective notching, as performed on the weldment. The volume of H₂ used was minimised so the test can be performed safely without the need of specialised equipment. The setup is shown to be capable of characterising Hydrogen Embrittlement (HE) in steels through testing an X60 pipeline steel and its weldment. The percentage elongation (%El) of the base metal was found to be reduced by 40% when tested in 100 barg H₂. Reduction of cross-sectional area (%RA) was found to decrease by 28% and 11% in the base metal and weld metal, respectively, when tested in 100 barg H₂. Benchmark test were performed at 100 barg N₂ pressure. SEM fractography further indicated a shift from normal ductile fracture mechanisms to a brittle transgranular (TG) quasi-cleavage (QC) type fracture that is characteristic of HE. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Review on the Mechanical Behavior of Metallic Materials under Hydrogen Environment – Experiment and Simulation)

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10 pages, 1410 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigation of the Pressure Dependent Hydrogen Solubility in a Martensitic Stainless Steel Using a Thermal Agile Tubular Autoclave and Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy

by Patrick Fayek, Sebastian Esser, Vanessa Quiroz and Chong Dae Kim

Metals 2021, 11(2), 231; https://doi.org/10.3390/met11020231 - 29 Jan 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3403

Abstract

Hydrogen is nowadays in focus as an energy carrier that is locally emission free. Especially in combination with fuel-cells, hydrogen offers the possibility of a CO₂ neutral mobility, provided that the hydrogen is produced with renewable energy. Structural parts of automotive components are often made of steel, but unfortunately they may show degradation of the mechanical properties when in contact with hydrogen. Under certain service conditions, hydrogen uptake into the applied material can occur. To ensure a safe operation of automotive components, it is therefore necessary to investigate the time, temperature and pressure dependent hydrogen uptake of certain steels, e.g., to deduct suitable testing concepts that also consider a long term service application. To investigate the material dependent hydrogen uptake, a tubular autoclave was set-up. The underlying paper describes the set-up of this autoclave that can be pressurised up to 20 MPa at room temperature and can be heated up to a temperature of 250 °C, due to an externally applied heating sleeve. The second focus of the paper is the investigation of the pressure dependent hydrogen solubility of the martensitic stainless steel 1.4418. The autoclave offers a very fast insertion and exertion of samples and therefore has significant advantages compared to commonly larger autoclaves. Results of hydrogen charging experiments are presented, that were conducted on the Nickel-martensitic stainless steel 1.4418. Cylindrical samples 3 mm in diameter and 10 mm in length were hydrogen charged within the autoclave and subsequently measured using thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). The results show how hydrogen sorption curves can be effectively collected to investigate its dependence on time, temperature and hydrogen pressure, thus enabling, e.g., the deduction of hydrogen diffusion coefficients and hydrogen pre-charging concepts for material testing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Review on the Mechanical Behavior of Metallic Materials under Hydrogen Environment – Experiment and Simulation)

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Review

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11 pages, 2705 KiB

Open AccessReview

Effect of Hydrogen in Mixed Gases on the Mechanical Properties of Steels—Theoretical Background and Review of Test Results

by Thorsten Michler, Christian Elsässer, Ken Wackermann and Frank Schweizer

Metals 2021, 11(11), 1847; https://doi.org/10.3390/met11111847 - 17 Nov 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3213

Abstract

This review summarizes the thermodynamics of hydrogen (H₂) in mixed gases of nitrogen (N₂), methane (CH₄) and natural gas, with a special focus on hydrogen fugacity. A compilation and interpretation of literature results for mechanical properties of steels as a function of hydrogen fugacity implies that test results obtained in gas mixtures and in pure hydrogen, both at the same fugacity, are equivalent. However, this needs to be verified experimentally. Among the test methods reviewed here, fatigue crack growth testing is the most sensitive method to measure hydrogen effects in pipeline steels followed by fracture toughness testing and tensile testing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Review on the Mechanical Behavior of Metallic Materials under Hydrogen Environment – Experiment and Simulation)

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15 pages, 2816 KiB

Open AccessReview

Review and Assessment of the Effect of Hydrogen Gas Pressure on the Embrittlement of Steels in Gaseous Hydrogen Environment

by Thorsten Michler, Ken Wackermann and Frank Schweizer

Metals 2021, 11(4), 637; https://doi.org/10.3390/met11040637 - 14 Apr 2021

Cited by 42 | Viewed by 6268 | Correction

Abstract

Hydrogen gas pressure is an important test parameter when considering materials for high-pressure hydrogen applications. A large set of data on the effect of hydrogen gas pressure on mechanical properties in gaseous hydrogen experiments was reviewed. The data were analyzed by converting pressures [...] Read more.

f^{| n |}

power law. For 95% of the data sets,

| n |

was smaller than 0.37, which was discussed in the context of (i) rate-limiting steps in the hydrogen reaction chain and (ii) statistical aspects. This analysis might contribute to defining the appropriate test fugacities (pressures) to qualify materials for gaseous hydrogen applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Review on the Mechanical Behavior of Metallic Materials under Hydrogen Environment – Experiment and Simulation)

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16 pages, 3167 KiB

Open AccessReview

Review on the Influence of Temperature upon Hydrogen Effects in Structural Alloys

by Thorsten Michler, Frank Schweizer and Ken Wackermann

Metals 2021, 11(3), 423; https://doi.org/10.3390/met11030423 - 4 Mar 2021

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4991

Abstract

It is well-documented experimentally that the influence of hydrogen on the mechanical properties of structural alloys like austenitic stainless steels, nickel superalloys, and carbon steels strongly depends on temperature. A typical curve plotting any hydrogen-affected mechanical property as a function of temperature gives a temperature T_HE,max, where the degradation of this mechanical property reaches a maximum. Above and below this temperature, the degradation is less. Unfortunately, the underlying physico-mechanical mechanisms are not currently understood to the level of detail required to explain such temperature effects. Though this temperature effect is important to understand in the context of engineering applications, studies to explain or even predict the effect of temperature upon the mechanical properties of structural alloys could not be identified. The available experimental data are scattered significantly, and clear trends as a function of chemistry or microstructure are difficult to see. Reported values for T_HE,max are in the range of about 200–340 K, which covers the typical temperature range for the design of structural components of about 230–310 K (from −40 to +40 °C). That is, the value of T_HE,max itself, as well as the slope of the gradient, might affect the materials selection for a dedicated application. Given the current lack of scientific understanding, a statistical approach appears to be a suitable way to account for the temperature effect in engineering applications. This study reviews the effect of temperature upon hydrogen effects in structural alloys and proposes recommendations for test temperatures for gaseous hydrogen applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Review on the Mechanical Behavior of Metallic Materials under Hydrogen Environment – Experiment and Simulation)

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