Abstract
This paper compares the behaviour under aggressive environmental conditions of a prestressing steel in two forms (bar and wire) of different yield strengths, to investigate the influence of this material parameter on their susceptibility to hydrogen-assisted cracking in aqueous environments. Slow strain-rate tests using pre-cracked, specimens were performed under various environment conditions. Different fatigue pre-cracking loads were used to analyse the influence of the stress state in the vicinity of the crack tip on the hydrogen-assisted cracking process. The results confirm the well-known fact that the highest-strength steel is the most susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement. A model of hydrogen diffusion in metals— including the effects of both hydrogen concentration and hydrostatic stress distribution—is proposed to explain these results on the basis of the stress-strain curve of the material. Consideration is given to compressive residual stresses induced in the vicinity of the crack tip during the fatigue pre-cracking process. The model is able to explain the different susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement of the two steels.
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