Abstract
We analyze the concept of threshold stress intensity factorK HAC and its importance for the processes of hydrogen-assisted cracking (HAC). We discuss the self-similarity of the zone near the crack tip well-described by the stress intensity factorsK, indicate the ambiguities encountered in the determination ofK HAC and the experimental parameters affecting the thresholds of hydrogen-assisted cracking parallel withK. It is shown thatK HAC has the physical meaning of the lower bound of the stress-intensity factors corresponding to the initiation of hydrogen-assisted cracking (if all other conditions are arbitrary). To obtain reliable estimates ofK HAC, one must impose additional restrictions on the experimental procedure of its evaluation.
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University of La Coruña ETSI Caminos, Campus de Elviña, 15071 La Coruña, Spain; Pidstryhach Institute of Applied Problems in Mechanics and Mathematics, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, L'viv. Published in Fizyko-Khimichna Mekhanika Materialiv, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 27–38, July–August, 1998
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Toribio, J., Kharin, V. The meaning of the thresholds of hydrogen-assisted cracking. Mater Sci 34, 476–489 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02360699
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02360699