EFFECT OF LOW-TEMPERATURE ON RESISTANCE OF STABLE AUSTENITIC STEEL TOEMBRITTLEMENT BY HYDROGEN

Tensile straining of a 'stable' austenitic stainless steel at subambie nt temperatures has revealed deformation induced transformation to mar tensite reaching a maximum at about 200 K. Although the particular ste el concerned is only marginally embrittled by hydrogen charging at amb ient temperature, the transformation to martensite coincides with incr easing embrittlement at lower temperatures. The recovery of a resistan ce to embrittlement below 215 K is attributed to the decreasing transp ort of hydrogen by moving dislocations as the temperature is further d ecreased. (C) 1993 The Institute of Materials. Manuscript received 8 J une 1992; in final form 1 July 1992. At the time the work was carried out the authors were in the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Ma nufacturing Engineering, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Dr Buc kley is now Rotherham Engineering Steels, Rotherham.