Integrated Experimental Procedures Assessing Hydrogen Induced Cracking Susceptibility

This study proposes a complete set of integrated experimental procedures to assess the risk of Hydrogen Induced Cracking (HIC) using implant test. The proposed experimental procedures assess HIC susceptibility in base metals using two measures: the implant static fatigue limit stress (σ_imp); and Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) maximum hardness (HV_10MAX). The base metal susceptibility to HIC was evaluated by examining the effect of three welding factors: the critical cooling time between 800 °C and 500 °C (t_800/500); the base metal carbon equivalent (CE); and the diffusible Hydrogen content (H). A 3-D mapping technique was used to demonstrate the interactive integrated relationships among the three examined welding factors (i.e. t_800/500, CE and H) and the susceptibility of the base metal to HIC. Using the 2-D projection of the developed 3-D mapping, it was proven that the diffusible hydrogen content (H) had more effect on the HIC susceptibility of High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) steel compared to the effect of H on the HIC susceptibility of Carbon-Manganese (C-Mn) steel.