Numerical Method to Determine Fracture Toughness Under Hydrogen Environment From Small Punch Test Data and Experimental Validation

This paper proposes a simple method to predict the fracture toughness of hydrogen-embrittled material using a hydrogen-embrittlement constant. The effect of hydrogen-embrittlement on fracture strain can be quantified via hydrogen-embrittlement constant, and it can be obtained by simulating small punch test in hydrogen. The fracture toughness of hydrogen-embrittled material can be simply estimated by multiplying the constant on fracture toughness of the un-embrittled material. The result of estimation shows good agreement with the published experimental data.