Hydrogen embrittlement of austenitic steels: electron approach

Abstract A review of available hypotheses for hydrogen embrittlement (HE) in its relation to austenitic steels is presented. It is shown that the hydrogen-enhanced localized plasticity theory adequately describes the features of HE. Nevertheless, being developed within the frame of continuum mechanics, it overestimates the hydrogen-induced shielding of the elastic interaction between dislocations and does not take into account the hydrogen-induced change in the electron structure of austenitic steels. Ab initio calculations and experimental studies of the electron structure show that the hydrogen in austenitic steels increases the concentration of free electrons, n f , and the interpretation of available experimental data shows that when designing steel, alloying the steel with elements that decrease n f improves hydrogen resistance. Experimental tests are carried out, and their results are discussed. Based on the hydrogen-increased concentration of thermodynamic equilibrium vacancies in the interstitial solid solutions, a new model for hydrogen-induced shear localization is proposed.