Fatigue properties in high pressure gaseous hydrogen environment were investigated for pipe materials used in fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen stations. Cyclic pressurization tests were conducted using a tubular specimen filled with hydrogen pressurized up to 90MPa. Tested materials were types 316L, 304 and A286 stainless steels, low alloy steels such as JIS SCM435 (1.0Cr-0.2Mo), Cr-Mo-V steels. The fatigue life in hydrogen was compared with that in inert gas to evaluate the effect of gaseous hydrogen on fatigue properties. The fatigue life in hydrogen was slightly shorter than that in argon in the case of a stable stainless steel type 316L. In contrast, a metastable stainless steel type 304 showed a remarkable degradation of the fatigue life in the hydrogen environment. Although the fatigue lives in hydrogen of type 316L and 304 stainless steels decreased with the increase in the cycle times, the fatigue lives remained unchanged over 102 of the cycle time. The fatigue life of low alloy SCM435 steel in hydrogen extremely decreased. The fatigue life of high-strength austenitic steel A286 in hydrogen is much better than that of low alloy SCM435 steel at the same tensile strength. The Cr-Mo-V steels showed longer fatigue lives than JIS SCM 435 at same strength levels in hydrogen. Fracture surfaces revealed transgranular cracking for the Cr-Mo-V steels, while intergranular cracking was observed for SCM435 with tensile strength more than 1.2 GPa. It was assumed that the carbide precipitation affected the fracture morphology.
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