Localized Plasticity and Associated Cracking in Stable and Metastable High-Entropy Alloys Pre-Charged with Hydrogen

© 2018 The Authors. We investigated hydrogen embrittlement in Fe20Mn20Ni20Cr20Co and Fe30Mn10Cr10Co (at.%) alloys pre-charged with 100 MPa hydrogen gas by tensile testing at three initial strain rates of 10 -4 , 10 -3 , and 10 -2 s -1 at ambient temperature. The alloys are classified as stable and metastable austenite-based high-entropy alloys (HEAs), respectively. Both HEAs showed the characteristic hydrogen-induced degradation of tensile ductility. Electron backscatter diffraction analysis indicated that the reduction in ductility by hydrogen pre-charging was associated with localized plasticity-assisted intergranular crack initiation. It should be noted as an important finding that hydrogen-assisted cracking of the metastable HEA occurred not through a brittle mechanism but through localized plastic deformation in both the austenite and ϵ-martensite phases

A new design concept for prevention of hydrogen-induced mechanical degradation: viewpoints of metastability and high entropy

© 2018 The Authors. "How crack growth is prevented" is key to improve both fatigue and monotonic fracture resistances under an influence of hydrogen. Specifically, the key points for the crack growth resistance are hydrogen diffusivity and local ductility. For instance, type 304 austenitic steels show high hydrogen embrittlement susceptibility because of the high hydrogen diffusivity of bcc (α) martensite. In contrast, metastability in specific austenitic steels enables fcc (γ) to hcp (ϵ) martensitic transformation, which decreases hydrogen diffusivity and increases strength simultaneously. As a result, even if hydrogen-assisted cracking occurs during monotonic tensile deformation, the ϵ-martensite acts to arrest micro-damage evolution when the amount of ϵ-martensite is limited. Thus, the formation of ϵ-martensite can decrease hydrogen embrittlement susceptibility in austenitic steels. However, a considerable amount of ϵ-martensite is required when we attempt to have drastic improvements of work hardening capability and strength level with respect to transformation-induced plasticity effect. Since the hcp structure contains a less number of slip systems than fcc and bcc, the less stress accommodation capacity often causes brittle-like failure when the ϵ-martensite fraction is large. Therefore, ductility of ϵ-martensite is another key when we maximize the positive effect of ϵ-martensitic transformation. In fact, ϵ-martensite in a high entropy alloy was recently found to be extraordinary ductile. Consequently, the metastable high entropy alloys showed low fatigue crack growth rates in a hydrogen atmosphere compared with conventional metastable austenitic steels with α-martensitic transformation. We here present effects of metastability to ϵ-phase and configurational entropy on hydrogen-induced mechanical degradation including monotonic tension properties and fatigue crack growth resistance