M. Sozanska et al., Examination of hydrogen interaction in carbon steel by means of quantitative microstructural and fracture descriptions, MATER CHAR, 46(2-3), 2001, pp. 239-243
The relations between the quantitative microstructural characteristics and
the resistance of carbon steels to hydrogen- induced cracking (HIC) were st
udied for plates used in the oil and refinery industry. The width of the pe
arlitic bands and the degree of banding were considered if the testing of t
he resistance to HIC was performed in accordance with the NACE TM 0284 stan
dard. The role of the degree of banding was important while that of the wid
th of pearlitic bands was negligible, Additional hydrogen embrittlement tes
ting of tensile specimens oriented in longitudinal and through-thickness di
rections revealed that hydrogen strongly increased the anisotropy of mechan
ical properties. These changes could be correlated with the geometric chara
cteristics of nonmetallic inclusions (MnS) and the pearlitic bands in diffe
rent metallographic sections. A quantitative description of fracture surfac
es has been made by means of a profilometric method. (C) 2001 Elsevier Scie
nce Inc. All rights reserved.