SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1981
STP33425S

Hydrogen-Induced Brittle Fracture of Type 304L Austenitic Stainless Steel

Source

Type 304L stainless steel supersaturated with hydrogen gas fails in tension at 200 to 250 K by brittle fracture. Fracture surfaces exhibit isolated facets oriented 0 to 30 deg to the tensile axis. These facets have many of the characteristics of cleavage fracture. The threefold symmetry of Laue back-reflection photographs and trace analysis of deformation bands on the facets demonstrate that fracture is along {111} planes. The fracture paths were identified as coherent twin boundaries on polished sections through facets and on microcracks across interior grains. Although twin-boundary parting is not commonly observed in alloys with a face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice, these observations for Type 304L stainless steel and similar observations of Nitronic-40 and Tenelon demonstrate that parting is possible in austenitic steels under some circumstances.

Author Information

Caskey, GR
Savannah River Laboratory, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., Aiken, S.C.
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Details
Developed by Committee: E08
Pages: 86–97
DOI: 10.1520/STP33425S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-4799-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-0733-5