ECCOMAS 2024

Towards the quantification of hydrogen-microstructure interactions using full-field models

  • Hussein, Abdelrahman (Ghent University)
  • Verbeken, Kim (Ghent University)
  • Depover, Tom (Ghent University)

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One of reasons for the decades-long debate on hydrogen embrittlement (HE), is the wide range of hydrogen-microstructure interactions. This results in a multitude of possible embrittlement mechanisms that would largely depend on the composition of the material and its microstructure. A thorough understanding of the various HE mechanisms requires systematic analysis of microstructures and their specific interaction with hydrogen. The state-of-the-art hydrogen diffusion and trapping models are formulated on the structural scale and are difficult to extend to account for microstructural features in a representative volume element (RVE). Furthermore, they are formulated on the assumption of local-equilibrium, which prevents them from capturing the trap-filling kinetics. To this end, we present a full-field modelling framework for hydrogen-microstructure interactions. The RVEs could be generated using the phase-field method or from electron back scattered diffraction measurements. A new set of mesoscale diffusion and trapping models based on thermodynamic principles, that are compatible with the phase-field RVEs, are presented in detail. Several examples of microstructural features like high/low angle grain boundaries or two-phase and martensite microstructures are discussed under different hydrogen testing conditions, especially permeation testing, and qualitatively compared to experimental data.