Effect of Absorbed Hydrogen on the Near Threshold Fatigue Crack Growth Behavior of Short Crack

Hydrogen is considered to be a possible energy source in the coming future. However, it has been recognized that hydrogen has a detrimental effect on the fatigue strength of metal. The fatigue crack growth characteristic is an important property for the integrity assessment of hydrogen utilization machine. In this report, the effect of hydrogen on the fatigue crack propagation characteristic was studied using low alloy steel, carbon steels and A286 alloy. Especially in this study, very short pre-cracked specimen as small as 0.03 mm deep was used and the near threshold fatigue crack behavior was studied. As a result, materials whose Vickers hardness was higher than 300 were found to be susceptible to absorbed hydrogen.