A novel heat treatment for improving the hydrogen embrittlement resistance of a precipitation-hardened martensitic stainless steel

Application of the novel heat treatment significantly improves the PH13-8Mo steel hydrogen embrittlement (HE) resistance over that obtained by conventional heat treatment, while maintaining the mechanical properties. The mechanism of the proposed method is as follows: austenite captures hydrogen and the mechanical properties are improved by fine grain strengthening. The results of this study show that compared with the steel properties obtained by conventional peak-aged heat treatment, the novel heat treatment results in a reduction in the tensile strength from 1500 MPa to 1400 MPa, but a significant decrease in the HE susceptibility index (I-HE) from 52% to 14%.

Automated summary

The novel heat treatment significantly improves the hydrogen embrittlement resistance of PH13-8Mo steel by reducing the hydrogen embrittlement susceptibility index, while maintaining mechanical properties like tensile strength.