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Title: Hydrogen embrittlement of rail steels

Journal Article · · Corrosion
DOI:https://doi.org/10.5006/1.3284046· OSTI ID:684447
; ; ; ;  [1]
  1. Univ. of Science and Technology, Beijing (China). Dept. of Materials Physics

The resistance to hydrogen embrittlement (HE) of rail steels was studied. Hydrogen blistering, hydrogen-induced plasticity loss (HIPL) I{sub {delta}} under slow strain rate test (SSRT), and hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC) under constant load were evaluated. Threshold hydrogen concentrations for blistering and HIPL were 0.7 ppm and 0.09 ppm for steel without vanadium (V), while they were 2.03 ppm and 0.26 ppm for the steel containing 0.09% V, respectively. HIPL (I{sub {delta}}) was found to decrease linearly with the reciprocal of the diffusible hydrogen concentration (C{sub 0}) (i.e., I{sub {delta}} = 100 {minus} 9/c{sub 0} for the steel without V, and I{sub {delta}} = 105 {minus} 27/C{sub 0} for steel containing V). This indicated that rail steel containing V is more tolerant to hydrogen than steel without V. The threshold stress for HIC ({sigma}{sub c}) decreased linearly with In C{sub 0} for steel containing V (i.e., {sigma}{sub c} [MPa] = 642 {minus} 284 In C{sub 0} [ppm]).

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
684447
Journal Information:
Corrosion, Vol. 55, Issue 9; Other Information: PBD: Sep 1999
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English