On the Hydrogen Embrittlement of Commercially Pure Alpha Titanium: An Example from the Petrochemical Industry

Abstract

Grade 2 of commercially pure Ti consisting of α-phase has many applications in the petrochemical industry such as floaters of gauges used to indicate liquid levels in tanks and reaction vessels. A floater fabricated by welding of 3.5-mm-thick sheet of grade 2 Ti into a thick-walled cylinder to indicate the level of a liquid mixture of isobutane, neobutane and neopentane in a petrochemical plant has lost its structural integrity by puncturing, cracking and blistering particularly at the section in contact with the liquid. The damage has been most severe in the base metal adjacent to the weld. Detailed microstructural characterization of the damaged floater and unwelded section of the same material has been carried out using scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, and the results have been complemented by stress analysis and microhardness measurements. It is shown that the mechanical strength of the floater has been degraded by a combination of excessive absorption of hydrogen during welding and rapid cooling from the β-phase field aided by the stresses generated by the liquid pressure. Absorption of hydrogen and rapid cooling are found to alter the desirable morphology of equiaxed grains of α-phase into a multi-phase structure with fine platelet-type morphology. The base metal adjacent to the weld is found to contain the brittle δ-phase of titanium hydride in a low-ductility matrix of α-Ti with some β-Ti. However, β-Ti is found to be the predominant constituent of the weld.