Hydrogen embrittlement risk in cold-drawn stainless steels

Abstract Present work is a wide study of the evaluation of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) risk of high strength stainless steels (HSSS) using the methodology proposed for carbon prestressing steels (FIP test). The sensitivity of the FIP method is assessed by a series of test and the influence of the material parameters, such as SS chemical composition, the microstructure and the surface morphology (cold drawn defects or presence of ribs), in the HE risk is investigated. Experimental results confirmed the higher HE resistance of HSSS compared to carbon prestressing steel. The cold drawing process promotes austenite–martensite transformation on some austenitic SS which has showed higher susceptibility for HE process to occur. The presence of defects on the HSSS wire surface, such as ribs, also contributes to reduce the resistance of these austenitic HSSS to hydrogen embrittlement. However, duplex HSSS have not shown sensitivity to HE in FIP test.