Effect of Pre-strain on Hydrogen Embrittlement in Intercritically Annealed Fe-6.5Mn-0.08C Medium-Mn steels

The present research deals with the effect of pre-strain on the hydrogen embrittlement behavior of intercritically annealed medium-Mn steels. A slow strain-rate tensile test was conducted after hydrogen charging by an electrochemical permeation method. Based on EBSD and XRD analysis results, the microstructure was composed of martensite and retained austenite of which fraction increased with an increase in the intercritical annealing temperature. The tensile test results showed that the steel with a higher fraction of retained austenite had relatively high hydrogen embrittlement resistance because the retained austenite acts as an irreversible hydrogen trap site. As the amount of pre-strain was increased, the hydrogen embrittlement resistance decreased notably due to an increase in the dislocation density and strain-induced martensite transformation.