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Hydrogen Effect on the Fatigue Crack Growth in Austenitic Stainless Steel Investigated by a New Method Based on Nanohardness Distribution

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Abstract

A new method of nanohardness distribution for investigating the hydrogen effect on the fatigue crack in austenitic stainless steels was developed. The nanohardness distribution around the fatigue crack tip is dependent on the plastic zone and different microstructures in materials. Nanoindentation could provide a possibility to quantitatively estimate the size of the plastic zone and to expressly identify the strain-induced α′ martensitic transformation around the fatigue crack tip. The results of measured nanohardness distribution reveal that hydrogen reduces the size of the estimated plastic zone around the fatigue crack tip, especially in the specimen tested in hydrogen gas environment, which is attributed to hydrogen-enhanced localized plasticity. Both hydrogen and α′ martensite greatly influence the nanohardness and the gradient of hydrogen concentration near the crack tip, which will have a significant effect on the fatigue crack growth.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, Grant No. 2015CB057601), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51571181, 51401181), and the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LY15E010006, LQ14E010003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Material Forming and Control Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, China

    Huimin Tao, Yuanjian Hong, Xingyang Chen, Chengshuang Zhou & Lin Zhang

  2. Institute of Process Equipment, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China

    Jinyang Zheng

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  1. Huimin Tao
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  2. Yuanjian Hong
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  3. Xingyang Chen
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  4. Chengshuang Zhou
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  5. Jinyang Zheng
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  6. Lin Zhang
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Correspondence to Jinyang Zheng or Lin Zhang.

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Tao, H., Hong, Y., Chen, X. et al. Hydrogen Effect on the Fatigue Crack Growth in Austenitic Stainless Steel Investigated by a New Method Based on Nanohardness Distribution. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 27, 6485–6492 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-018-3764-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-018-3764-1

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