A low carbon steel was heat-treated by various processes, so that different microstructures including ferrite + pearlite, bainite, bainite + martensite, martensite, and temper martensite were obtained. These heat-treated specimens were used to evaluate the hydrogen embrittlement characteristics by HIC immersion test and Charpy impact test. The results indicated that hydrogen cracking in the as-received specimen is the worst and the air cooling, oil cooling and high temperature tempered specimens have the better HIC resistance. These results demonstrated that the pearlite band structure is the most important HIC propagation path. The Charpy impact testing results for specimens without and with hydrogen charging showed that the absorbed energies of H-charged specimens did not change or even increase. The dislocation density seems to play an important role on the variation of impact absorbed energy. The detail effects of microstructure on the hydrogen embrittlement was discussed in this paper.

Subject
Steel structures, Hydrogen embrittlement, Dislocation, Microstructure, Crack propagation, Hydrogen charging, Density, Pearlite, Steel, Hydrophobic interaction chromatography, Ferrite, Hydrogen, Martensite
Keywords:
microstructure, hydrogen embrittlement, Charpy impact test
© 1994 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
1994
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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