A novel specimen geometry for an improved estimation of hydrogen effects on the tensile behavior of face-centered cubic alloys

Abstract

The significantly lower hydrogen (H) diffusivity in face-centered cubic (fcc) alloys compared to body-centered cubic alloys causes electrochemically charged H to remain primarily only in the near-surface region of tensile specimens. Such localized distribution often leads to a misinterpretation of H effect on the uniaxial tensile behavior of conventional specimens. To address this issue, here we propose a novel tensile specimen geometry for a better estimation of the influence of H on the tensile behavior of fcc alloys. Our results reveal that this new approach effectively captures H effects, which was confirmed by analyzing the H distribution within the specimens using the silver decoration technique.