Reduction in Area and Formation of Hydrogen-Assisted Fracture Surfaces of Cathodically Charged Low-Alloyed Sulphur Steels

Abstract

The present work is concerned with the role of sulphidic inclusions in hydrogen-assisted cracking of low-alloy steels with different sulphur contents. The steels were previously cathodically charged in sulphuric acid solution. Evaluating the susceptibility to hydrogen-assisted cracking in terms of the reduction in area values, the high sulphur steel is less susceptible than the low sulphur steel. The fracture surface of the low sulphur steel appears rather brittle, with local quasi-cleavage fractures around large intergranular fracture facets. In contrast, the fracture surface of the high sulphur steel is characterized predominantly by the microvoid coalescence mode, with a great number of manganese sulphide inclusions. The difference between the two sulphur steels is based upon the concept that the interfaces between sulphidic inclusions and matrix act as trapping sites for hydrogen and thus hydrogen is uniformly distributed over the sulphidic inclusions.