This important two-volume work provides a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the latest research into managing hydrogen embrittlement in energy technologies.

Volume 1: The Problem, Its Characterisation and Effects on Particular Alloy Classes is divided into three parts.

Part One covers the hydrogen embrittlement problem in specific technologies including petrochemical refining, automotive hydrogen tanks, nuclear waste disposal and power systems, and H2 storage and distribution facilities.

Part Two examines modern methods of characterization and analysis of hydrogen damage.

Part Three focuses on the hydrogen degradation of various alloy classes.

Coverage includes:

• safety, durability, performance and economic operation of using gaseous hydrogen at high pressure
• how hydrogen embrittlement affects particular sectors such as the petrochemicals, automotive and nuclear industries
• how hydrogen embrittlement can be characterised and its effects on particular alloy classes
• ways of characterising and testing for hydrogen-assisted fatigue and fracture and analyses the ways gaseous hydrogen embrittlement affects high-performance steels, superalloys, titanium and aluminium alloys

CONTENTS

Part 1: The Hydrogen Embrittlement Problem

1. Hydrogen production and containment

• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) stationary vessels in hydrogen service
• Department of transportation (DOT) transport steel vessels
• Fracture mechanics method for steel hydrogen vessel design
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) stationary composite vessels
• Composite transport vessels
• Hydrogen pipelines
• Gaseous hydrogen leakage
• Joint design and selection
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) code leak and pressure testing

2. Hydrogen-induced disbonding and embrittlement of steels used in petrochemical refining

• Petrochemical refining
• Problems during/after cooling of reactors
• Effect of hydrogen content on mechanical properties

3. Assessing hydrogen embrittlement in automotive hydrogen tanks

• Experimental details

4. Gaseous hydrogen issues in nuclear waste disposal

• Nature of nuclear wastes and their disposal environments
• Gaseous hydrogen issues in the disposal of high-activity wastes
• Gaseous hydrogen issues in the disposal of low-and intermediate-level waste (LILW)

5. Hydrogen embrittlement in nuclear power systems

• Experimental methods
• Environmental factors
• Metallurgical effects

6. Standards and codes to control hydrogen-induced cracking in pressure vessels and pipes for hydrogen gas storage and transport

• Basic code selected for pressure vessels
• Code for piping and pipelines
• Additional code requirements for high pressure hydrogen applications
• Methods for calculating the design cyclic (fatigue) life
• Example of crack growth in a high pressure hydrogen environment

Part 2: Characterisation and Analysis of Hydrogen Embrittlement

7. Fracture and fatigue test methods in hydrogen gas

• General considerations for conducting tests in external hydrogen
• Test methods

8. Mechanics of modern test methods and quantitive-accelerated testing for hydrogen embrittlement

• General aspects of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) testing
• Smooth specimens
• Pre-cracked specimens – the fracture mechanics (FM) approach to stress corrosion cracking (SCC)
• Limitations of the linear elastic fracture mechanics (FM) approach

9. Metallographic and Fractographic techniques for characterising and understanding hydrogen-assisted cracking

• Characterisation of microstructures and hydrogen distributions
• Crack paths with respect to microstructure
• Characterising fracture-surface appearance (and interpretation of features)
• Determining fracture-surface crystallography
• Characterising slip-distributions and strains around cracks
• Determining the effects of solute hydrogen on dislocation activity
• Determining the effects of adsorbed hydrogen on surfaces
• In situ (transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations of fracture in thin foils and other TEM studies
• ‘Critical’ experiments for determining mechanisms of hydrogen-assisted cracking (HAC)
• Proposed mechanisms of HAC

10. Fatigue crack initiation and fatigue life of metals exposed to hydrogen

• Effect of hydrogen on total-life fatigue testing and fatigue crack growth (FCG) threshold stress intensity range
• Mechanisms of fatigue crack initiation (FCI)

11. Effects of hydrogen on fatigue-crack propagation in steels

• Materials and experimental methods
• Effect of hydrogen on the fatigue behavior of martensitic SCM435 Cr-Mo steel
• Effect of hydrogen on fatigue-crack growth behavior in austenitic stainless steels
• Effects of hydrogen on fatigue behavior in lower-strength bainitic/ferritic/martensitic steels

Part 3: The Hydrogen Embrittlement of Alloy Classes

12. Hydrogen embrittlement of high-strength steels

• Microstructures of martensitic high strength steels
• Effects of hydrogen on crack growth
• Discussion of microstructural effects

13. Hydrogen trapping phenomena in martensitic steels

• Hydrogen in the normal lattice of pure iron
• Theoretical treatments for diffusion in lattice containing trap sites
• Experiment and simulation techniques for measurement of trapping parameters
• Hydrogen trapping at lattice defects in martensitic steels
• Design of nano-sized alloy carbides as beneficial trap sites to enhance resistance to hydrogen embrittlement

14. Hydrogen embrittlement of carbon steels and their welds

• Hydrogen solubility and diffusivity in carbon steels
• Mechanical properties of carbon steels and their welds in high pressure hydrogen
• Important factors in hydrogen gas embrittlement
• Hydrogen embrittlement mechanisms in low strength carbon steels

15. Hydrogen embrittlement of high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels and their welds

• The family of high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels
• The welding of low alloy (HSLA) steels
• Mechanical effect of hydrogen on high strength low alloy (HSLA) steels

16. Hydrogen embrittlement of austenitic stainless steels and their welds

• Fundamentals of austenitic stainless steels
• Hydrogen transport
• Environment test methods
• Models and mechanisms
• Observations of hydrogen-assisted fracture
• Trends in hydrogen-assisted fracture

17. Hydrogen embrittlement of nickel, cobalt and iron-based superalloys

• Hydrogen transport properties in superalloys
• Hydrogen gas effects on mechanical properties of superalloys
• Important factors in hydrogen embrittlement

18. Hydrogen effects in titanium alloys

• Terminology, classification and properties of titanium alloys
• Hydrogen embrittlement behaviour in different classes of Ti alloys
• Hydrogen trapping in Ti-alloys
• Positive effects in titanium alloys

19. Hydrogen embrittlement of aluminium and aluminium-based alloys

• Hydrogen interactions in Al alloy systems (experiment and modeling)
• Gaseous hydrogen and hydrogen environment embrittlement in Al based alloys
• Mechanisms of hydrogen-assisted cracking in Al-based systems
• Improvement of the hydrogen resistant of Al-base alloys based on etallurgical, surface engineering or environmental chemistry modifications
• Needs, gaps and opportunities in Al-based systems

20. Hydrogen-induced degradation of rubber seals

• Example of cracking of a rubber O-ring used in a high-pressure hydrogen storage vessel
• Effect of filler on blister damage to rubber sealing materials in high-pressure hydrogen gas
• Influence of gaseous hydrogen on the degradation of a rubber sealing material
• Testing of the durability of a rubber O-ring by using a high-pressure hydrogen durability tester

Index

Also available:
Volume 2: Mechanisms, Modelling and Future Development

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