Abstract
With fossil fuels being phased out and growing global interest in a hydrogen economy, there is demand for re-purposing existing pipelines for transportation of hydrogen gas. However, hydrogen embrittlement (HE) can limit pipeline steel’s performance. In this study, the effect of hydrogen on the mechanical properties of an X60 base metal (polygonal ferrite/pearlite) and its girth weld (acicular ferrite/pearlite) was measured with a novel slow strain rate tensile (SSRT) test in which hollow pipe-like specimens were internally pressurised with nitrogen and hydrogen gas from 0 to 100 bars. Results showed that exposure to H2 gas at 100 bars reduced the ductility of the base metal by up to 40% and the weld metal by 14%. Reduction in cross-sectional area (%RA) reduced by up to 28% in the base metal and 11% in the weld metal. Fracture surface analysis showed micro-void coalescence as well as quasi-cleavage fracture characteristic of HE. Susceptibility to HE was also observed in the form of secondary longitudinal and internal transverse cracks.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
European Commission, “A European Green Deal” (2020). Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en. Accessed on 30 Aug 2020
Song EJ, Baek SW, Nahm SH, Baek UB (2017) Notched-tensile properties under high-pressure gaseous hydrogen: comparison of pipeline steel X70 and austenitic stainless type 304L, 316L steels. Int J Hydrogen Energy 42:8075–8082
Lynch SP (2011) Hydrogen embrittlement (HE) phenomena and mechanism. In: Stress corrosion cracking: theory and practice, vol i, pp 90–130
Martin ML, Fenske JA, Liu GS, Sofronis P, Robertson IM (2011) On the formation and nature of quasi-cleavage fracture surfaces in hydrogen embrittled steels. Acta Materialia 59(4):1601–1606
Martin ML, Robertson IM, Sofronis P (2011) Interpreting hydrogen-induced fracture surfaces in terms of deformation processes: a new approach. Acta Materialia 59(9):3680–3687
ASTM (2018) F1624-12, standard test method for measurement of hydrogen embrittlement threshold in steel by the incremental step loading technique. American Association for Testing and Materials
ASTM (2013) G142, standard test method for determination of susceptibility of metals to embrittlement in hydrogen containing environments at high pressure, high temperature, or both. American Association for Testing and Materials
Wang M, Akiyama E, Tsuzaki K (2005) Crosshead speed dependence of the notch tensile strength of a high strength steel in the presence of hydrogen. Scripta Materialia 53:713–718
Zhao, Seok MY, Choi IC, Lee YH, Park SJ, Ramamurty U, Suh JY, Jang JZ (2015) The role of hydrogen in hardening/softening steel: influence of the charging process. Scripta Materialia 107:46–49
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank IntecSea for sharing their knowledge to make this research possible.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
About this paper
Cite this paper
Boot, T., Riemslag, T., Reinton, E., Liu, P., Walters, C.L., Popovich, V. (2021). Assessing the Susceptibility of Existing Pipelines to Hydrogen Embrittlement. In: TMS 2021 150th Annual Meeting & Exhibition Supplemental Proceedings. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65261-6_65
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65261-6_65
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-65260-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-65261-6
eBook Packages: Chemistry and Materials ScienceChemistry and Material Science (R0)