• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.7
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• pp.637-646
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• 2016

This study is to investigate the influence of hydrogen attack and UNSM on fatigue behaviors of the Inconel 718 alloy. The decrease of the fatigue life between the untreated and the hydrogen attacked material is 10-20%. The fatigue lives of hydrogen attacked specimen decreased without a fatigue limit, similar to those of nonferrous materials. Due to hydrogen embrittlement, about 80% of the surface cracks were smaller than the average grain size of $13{\mu}m$. Many small surface cracks caused by the embrittling effect of hydrogen attack were initiated at the grain boundaries and surface scratches. Cracks were irregularly distributed, grew, and then coalesced through tearing, leading to a reduction of fatigue life. Results revealed that the fatigue lives of UNSM-treated specimens were longer than those of the untreated specimens.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.1992-1996
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• 2007

This study focuses on the hydrogen embrittlement of iron tube for fuel line of PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell). PEMFC is operated by feed of hydrogen as a reactant and steam for proton conductivity of membrane. However, the environment with hydrogen and steam occur the hydrogen-induced degradation in BOP system. When iron tube was exposed to hydrogen and steam condition for 24 hours, the oxide layer on the surface was decreased by reduction. When the ambient temperature was 90$^{\circ}C$ micro cracks were found on the surface than any other temperature. The mechanical strength of iron tube was 3% lower than that of non-experiment tube. Maximum tensile stress was decreased 8%.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.225-232
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• 2008

To understand the effect of the cyclic strain rate on the environmentally assisted cracking behaviors of SA508 Gr.1a low alloy steel in deoxygenated water at $310^{\circ}C$, the fatigue surface and a sectioned area of specimens were observed after low cycle fatigue tests. On the fatigue surface of the specimen tested at a strain rate of 0.008 %/s, unclear ductile striations and a blunt crack tip were observed. Therefore, metal dissolution could be the main cracking mechanism of the material at this strain rate. On the other hand, on the fatigue surfaces of the specimens tested at strain rates of 0.04 and 0.4 %/s, brittle cracks and flat facets, which are evidences of the hydrogen induced cracking, were observed. In addition, a tendency of linkage between the main crack and the micro-cracks was observed on the sectioned area. Therefore, at higher strain rates, the main cracking mechanism could be hydrogen induced cracking. Additionally, evidence of the dissolved MnS inclusions was observed on the fatigue surface from energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer analyses. Thus, despite the low sulfur content of the test material, the sulfides seem to contribute to environmentally assisted cracking of SA508 Gr.1a low alloy steel in deoxygenated water at $310^{\circ}C$.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.297-303
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• 2023

This study aimed to evaluate hydrogen permeation behaviors of pre-strained twinning-induced plasticity steel with or without Zn coating using electrochemical permeation technique. In contrast to un-strained and 30% strained samples, permeation current density was measured in the 60% strained sample. Tensile pre-straining at 60% involved microstructural modifications, including a high level of dislocation density and stacking fault with a semi-coherent twin boundary, which might provide a high diffusion path for hydrogen atoms. However, reproducibility of measurements of hydrogen permeation current was low due to non-uniform deformation and localized stress concentration. On the other hand, the permeation current was not measured in pre-strained TWIP steel with Zn coating. Instead, numerous blisters with some cracks were observed on the surface of the coating layer. In locally damaged Zn coating under tensile straining, hydrogen atoms could relatively easily permeate through the coating layer. However, they were trapped at the interface between the coating layer and the substrate, which might delay hydrogen penetration into the steel substrate.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.41 no.11
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• pp.1011-1020
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• 2017

This study was conducted to investigate the material properties of stainless steel 316L specimens of untreated and UNSM treated material, hydrogen attacked material(100 bar, $300^{\circ}C$ at 120 h) and UNSM treated hydrogen attacked material at room temperature. Results demonstrated that the hydrogen attacked materials showed a tendency toward a slightly decreased fatigue strength, while the hydrogen embrittlement effect was smaller than the S-N curve of conventional untreated material. As compared to untreated material, the fatigue limit of the UNSM treated material increased by 43.8%, while it was 57.1％ higher in the UNSM treated hydrogen attacked material than in untreated hydrogen attacked material. The plastic deformation layer was ${\sim}152{\mu}m$ thick, as confirmed by maps showing the level of local plastic deformation affected by the UNSM treatment in three ways: an image quality map, inverse pole figure map, and kernel average misorientation map captured via electron back scatter diffraction. Owing to hydrogen embrittlement, about 90％ of surface cracks were smaller than the average grain size of $35{\mu}m$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2014

The effects of environment and microstructure on low cycle fatigue (LCF) behaviors of CF8M stainless steels containing 11% of ferrites were investigated in a $310^{\circ}C$ deoxygenated water environment. The reduction of LCF life of CF8M in a $310^{\circ}C$ deoxygenated water was smaller than 316LN stainless steels. Based on the microstructure and fatigue surface analyses, it was confirmed that the hydrogen induced cracking contributed to the reduction in LCF life for CF8M as well as for 316LN. However, many secondary cracks were found on the boundaries of ferrite phases in CF8M, which effectively reduced the stress concentration at the crack tip. Because of the reduced stress concentration, the accelerated fatigue crack growth by hydrogen induced cracking was less significant, which resulted in the smaller environmental effects for CF8M than 316LN in a $310^{\circ}C$ deoxygenated water.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.388-396
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• 2023

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a vital source of clean and sustainable hydrogen energy. Moreover, the large-scale H₂ production is currently necessary, while long-term stability and high PEC activity still remain important issues. In this study, a GaN-based photoelectrode was modified by an additional NH₃ treatment (900℃ for 10 min) and its PEC behavior was monitored. The bare GaN exhibited a highly crystalline wurtzite structure with the (002) plane and the optical bandgap was approximately 3.2 eV. In comparison, the NH₃-treated GaN film exhibited slightly reduced crystallinity and a small improvement in light absorption, resulting from the lattice stress or cracks induced by the excessive N supply. The minor surface nanotexturing created more surface area, providing electroactive reacting sites. From the surface XPS analysis, the formation of an N-Ga-O phase on the surface region of the GaN film was confirmed, which suppressed the charge recombination process and the positive shift of E_FB. Therefore, these effects boosted the PEC activity of the NH₃-treated GaN film, with J values of approximately 0.35 and 0.78 mA·cm^-2 at 0.0 and 1.23 V_RHE, respectively, and an onset potential (V_on) of -0.24 V_RHE. In addition, there was an approximate 50% improvement in the J value within the highly applied potential region with a positive shift of V_on. This result could be explained by the increased nanotexturing on the surface structure, the newly formed defect/trap states correlated to the positive V_on shift, and the formation of a GaO_xN_1-x phase, which partially blocked the charge recombination reaction.