Insight into hydrogen effect on a duplex medium-Mn steel revealed by in-situ nanoindentation test

Medium-Mn steel is the newly developed steel acting as a promising candidate of the 3rd-generation advanced high strength steels. In the present study, the effect of hydrogen on the mechanical behavior and martensite transformation process in a duplex medium-Mn steel is investigated by in-situ nanoindentation test. The mechanical response of individual phase: ferrite, and retained austenite by introducing hydrogen is studied. With the presence of hydrogen, the reduction of activation energy for dislocation nucleation was verified by using a stress-biased, statistical thermal activation model. The stacking fault energy (SFE) was reduced, which was revealed by electron channeling contrast (ECC) technique. Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) revealed a suppression of retained austenite to alpha'-martensite transformation with the presence of hydrogen, which is related to hydrogen induced SFE reduction and enhanced slip planarity. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.