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Observation of small fatigue crack growth behavior in the extremely low growth rate region of low carbon steel in a hydrogen gas environment

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Abstract

To investigate the effects of hydrogen on crack propagation in the extremely low growth rate range, fully reversed bending fatigue tests were performed on low carbon steel (JIS S10C) in hydrogen and in nitrogen gas environments at a low pressure. A crack showed almost the same non-propagation behavior in nitrogen as that in air. However, a crack in hydrogen continued to propagate even near \(10^{7}\) cycles in the same testing strain range as that in nitrogen. In hydrogen gas, a crack grew intermittently by coalescing with a new micro-crack generated by slip behavior. This implies that hydrogen could inhibit the action of any factor affecting non-propagation.

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Acknowledgments

A part of this study was funded by NEDO and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science “Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research on JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kyushu University, 744 Moto-oka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan

    Dongsun Lee, Yasuji Oda & Hiroshi Noguchi

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  1. Dongsun Lee
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  2. Yasuji Oda
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  3. Hiroshi Noguchi
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Correspondence to Hiroshi Noguchi.

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Lee, D., Oda, Y. & Noguchi, H. Observation of small fatigue crack growth behavior in the extremely low growth rate region of low carbon steel in a hydrogen gas environment. Int J Fract 183, 223–240 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10704-013-9889-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10704-013-9889-1

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