Thirty percent cold-worked (CW) carbon steel tensile specimens were exposed to 360°C air and hydrogen environments (2 MPa H2 and 20 MPa H2) under an applied load to produce intergranular creep cracking. In this study, cutting-edge microscopy techniques were applied to characterize cracking on multiple length scales and in three dimensions. The objective was to develop a better mechanistic understanding of creep cracking in carbon steel, and the known deleterious effect of hydrogen (attack) at the micro-to-nanoscale. Amorphous carbon along the fracture path was observed in all experiments, with evidence for nanoscale cavities/methane bubbles in hydrogen exposures, particularly at cementite-ferrite boundaries. Results suggested that creep or residual stress led to breakdown of cementite to amorphous carbon, cavitation, and/or formation of methane (depending on H2 content); it is suggested that the combination of deleterious mechanisms leads to initiation and/or acceleration of creep cracking in CW carbon steel. Comparisons are made between the morphology of creep cracking in these laboratory experiments and recent results from characterization of creep cracking in ex-service carbon steel piping from a CANDU nuclear power plant. Although more subtle, similar morphology and chemistry at crack tips in laboratory and ex-service CW carbon steel suggests that the mechanism(s) of creep cracking is similar.
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1 November 2019
Research Article|
September 24 2019
A Mechanistic Study of Carbon Steel Cracking in 360°C Air and Hydrogen Environments
S.Y. Persaud;
S.Y. Persaud
‡
**Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Queen’s University, Nicol Hall, 60 Union Street W, Kingston, Ontario K7L 2N8, Canada.
‡Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].
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K. Arioka;
K. Arioka
***INSS, 64 Sata, Mihama-cho, Mikata-gun, Fukui Mihama 919-1205, Japan.
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K. Farquharson;
K. Farquharson
*Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, 286 Plant Road, Chalk River, Ontario K0J 1J0, Canada.
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C. Dixon;
C. Dixon
*Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, 286 Plant Road, Chalk River, Ontario K0J 1J0, Canada.
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C.D. Judge
C.D. Judge
*Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, 286 Plant Road, Chalk River, Ontario K0J 1J0, Canada.
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‡Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].
Received:
June 12 2019
Revision Received:
September 23 2019
Accepted:
September 23 2019
Online ISSN: 1938-159X
Print ISSN: 0010-9312
© 2019, NACE International
2019
CORROSION (2019) 75 (11): 1354–1370.
Article history
Received:
June 12 2019
Revision Received:
September 23 2019
Accepted:
September 23 2019
Citation
S.Y. Persaud, K. Arioka, K. Farquharson, C. Dixon, C.D. Judge; A Mechanistic Study of Carbon Steel Cracking in 360°C Air and Hydrogen Environments. CORROSION 1 November 2019; 75 (11): 1354–1370. https://doi.org/10.5006/3294
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