Advanced Indentation Studies on the Effects of Hydrogen Attack on Tensile Property Degradation of Heat-Resistant Steel Heat-Affected Zones

Safety diagnosis of various structural components and facilities is indispensable for preventing catastrophic failure of material by time-dependent and environment accelerating degradation. Also, this diagnosis of operating components should be done periodically for safe maintenance and economical repair. However, conventional standard methods for mechanical properties have the problems of bulky specimen, destructive procedure and complex procedure of specimen sampling. So, a non-destructive and simple mechanical testing method using small specimen is needed. Therefore, an advanced indentation technique was developed as a potential method for non-destructive testing of in-field structures. This technique measures indentation load-depth curve during indentation and analyzes the mechanical properties related to deformation such as yield strength, tensile strength and work-hardening index. In this paper, we characterized the tensile properties including yield and tensile strengths of the V-modified Cr-Mo steels in petro-chemical and thermo-electrical plants. And also, the effects of hydrogen-assisted degradation of the V-modified Cr-Mo steels were analyzed in terms of work-hardening index and yield ratio.