Effect of Cadmium Plating Thickness on the Charpy Impact Energy of Hydrogen- Charged 4340 Steel
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Effect of Cadmium Plating Thickness on the Charpy Impact Energy of Hydrogen- Charged 4340 Steel O. S. Es-Said, J. Alcisto, J. Guerra, E. Jones, A. Dominguez, M. Hahn, N. Ula, L. Zeng, B. Ramsey, H. Mulazimoglu, Yong-Jun Li, et al. Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance ISSN 1059-9495 Volume 25 Number 9 J. of Materi Eng and Perform (2016) 25:3606-3614 DOI 10.1007/s11665-016-2246-6 1 23 Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by ASM International. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self-archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self- archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com”. 1 23 Author's personal copy JMEPEG (2016) 25:3606–3614 ÓASM International DOI: 10.1007/s11665-016-2246-6 1059-9495/$19.00 Effect of Cadmium Plating Thickness on the Charpy Impact Energy of Hydrogen-Charged 4340 Steel O.S. Es-Said, J. Alcisto, J. Guerra, E. Jones, A. Dominguez, M. Hahn, N. Ula, L. Zeng, B. Ramsey, H. Mulazimoglu, Yong-Jun Li, M. Miller, J. Alrashid, M. Papakyriakou, S. Kalnaus, E.W. Lee, and W.E. Frazier (Submitted February 29, 2016; in revised form June 3, 2016; published online July 22, 2016) Hydrogen was intentionally introduced into ultra-high strength steel by cadmium plating. The purpose was to examine the effect of cadmium plate thickness and hence hydrogen on the impact energy of the steel. The AISI 4340 steel was austenitized at 1000 °C for 1 h, water quenched, and tempered at temperatures between 257 and 593 °C in order to achieve a range of targeted strength levels. The specimens were cadmium plated with 0.00508 mm (0.2 mils), 0.00762 mm (0.3 mils), and 0.0127 mm (0.5 mils). Results demonstrated that the uncharged specimens exhibited higher impact energy values when compared to the plated specimens at all tempering temperatures. The cadmium-plated specimens had very low Charpy impact values irrespective of their ultimate tensile strength values. The model of hydrogen transport by mobile dislocations to the fracture site appears to provide the most suitable explanation of the results. stabilization mechanism), the assumption is that hydrogen Keywords 4340 steel, cadmium plating, Charpy impact test, hydrogen charging promotes vacancy agglomeration which lowers the ductility in steels that fail through microvoid coalescence. The HE literature is rich; however, the actual mechanisms leading to failure of metals by this phenomenon is still not clear. What is accepted is that hydrogen migrates to stress concentration 1. Introduction locations and facilitates fracture. HE is a long-standing problem in the gas and oil industry, in the storing and transport of hydrogen (Ref 14), automotive Hydrogen charging (absorption) occurs in different pro- parts that require ultra-high strength for crash protection in cesses. These include electroplating, heat treatment, corrosion rollover and in side-impact accidents (Ref 7, 15-17), modern fuel cell reactions, pickling, steel making, and cathodic motor architecture (Ref 18), aircraft landing gears and protections (Ref 1-7). The detrimental effect of hydrogen on fasteners (Ref 19), and off shore platforms, tankers, and navy the properties of metals has been documented (Ref 3-13). ships (Ref 20). Hydrogen embrittlement (HE) is known to affect high Several tests exist that can detect the amount of hydrogen strength steel components like springs and screws. Several in steels (Ref 21, 22). These detection methods can be very models were proposed to understand the mechanisms of HE. time-consuming and difficult to carry out. Traditionally, Rehrl et al. (Ref 7) and Neeraje et al. (Ref 14) reviewed the sustained load time-to-failure or stress durability test for models that coincide at the point that hydrogen diffusion into hydrogen embrittlement in steels required many machines, stress concentration fields is necessary to promote HE. These used up to 12-14 samples and could take minimum 96 h up to models were HEDE, HELP, and VM. In HEDE (hydrogen- 4 or 5 years. The incremental step loading technique for enhanced decohesion), the assumption is that hydrogen reduces measurements of hydrogen embrittlement in steel, however, is the atomic bonds strength, decreases the surface energy, and a more efficient method which only utilizes one machine and can accelerate in a stress field the initiation and propagation of is completed within 1 week (Ref 22). This test method cracks. In hydrogen-enhanced localized plasticity (HELP), the measures the subcritical crack growth with a step modified assumption is that the presence of hydrogen gas enhances the incrementally increasing slow strain rate test. The load rate mobility of dislocations. In VM (hydrogen-enhanced vacancy must be slow in order to permit hydrogen to diffuse and induce cracking. O.S. Es-Said, J. Alcisto, J. Guerra, E. Jones, A. Dominguez, Szczopanski (Ref 23) indicated that hydrogen affects the M. Miller, J. Alrashid, and M. Papakyriakou, Mechanical results of an impact test. Jean (Ref 24) predicted that Charpy Engineering Department, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA 90045; M. Hahn, F-35 Materials and Processes, Northrop- impact test would detect the presence of hydrogen in metals. Grumman, Redondo Beach, CA 90278; N. Ula, Electrical Engineering His (Ref 24) experimental results did not confirm his Department, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA 90045; hypothesis. In a recent study by Mori et al. (Ref 25), same L. Zeng and B. Ramsey, Sargent Aerospace and Defense, Torrance, CA group in this study, showed that Charpy impact testing can 90502; H. Mulazimoglu, ALCOA Fastening Systems and Rings, clearly detect the presence of hydrogen when the tempering Torrance, CA 90502; Yong-Jun Li, MANE Laboratories, College of temperatures exceed 468 °C. Their results were explained by Science and Engineering, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA 90045; S. Kalnaus, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Computational a model which suggests that hydrogen can be transported Engineering and Energy Sciences Group, Oak Ridge, TN 3783; and rapidly by mobile dislocations to the fracture site. For E.W. Lee and W.E. Frazier, Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent transport mode, hydrogen may diffuse by the normal River, MD 20670. Contact e-mail: [email protected]. 3606—Volume 25(9) September 2016 Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance Author's personal copy interstitial diffusion mode or can be carried by mobile dislocations is faster and the interaction between hydrogen dislocations or along short-circuit paths. The difference and dislocations is more energetic (Ref 26). Bastein and Azou between these various modes by which hydrogen diffuses is (Ref 27) in 1951 first suggested that dislocations could fundamental. Interstitial diffusion is slow, while transport by transport hydrogen atmosphere at rates faster than lattice Fig. 1 (a) Tensile bar dimensions (Ref 17). (b) The dimensions (mm) of Charpy impact V-notched specimen which is based on ASTM E23-12c Fig. 2 (a) Removing scale from Charpy impact specimens. (b) Removing scale from tensile specimens. Lower picture shows the effect after etching 8 h in 25% HCl solution Table 1 Desired UTS and the obtained UTS after tempering at the specified temperatures for uncharged specimens Uncharged desired Uncharged desired Uncharged obtained Uncharged obtained Temperature, °C UTS, ksi UTS, MPa UTS, ksi UTS, MPa Percent difference 593 145 1000 142 976 2 545 160 1103 153 1052 5 513 170 1172 163 1120 4 481 180 1241 184 1266 À2 449 190 1310 177 1219 7 401 205 1413 193 1333 6 353 220 1517 211 1458 4 257 250 1724 241 1664 3 Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance Volume 25(9) September 2016—3607 Author's personal copy Fig. 5 Energy absorbed vs. strength for the range of tempers inves- tigated Fig. 3 Ultimate strength vs. tempering temperature for uncharged and charged specimens Fig. 4 Average impact energy vs. tempering temperature for un- charged and charged specimens diffusion rates and that this hydrogen could be trapped in voids, leading to internal pressure enhancement and to failure. The concept that ‘‘dislocations transport’’ and ‘‘trapping’’ are competing processes was initiated by Tien et al. (Ref 26)and Fig. 6 As received after being austenitized, oil quenched, and tem- expanded upon by Pressouyre and Bernstein (Ref 28)to pered at 232 °C include competition between weak and strong traps (grain boundaries, inclusions, voids, dislocation arrays, and solute atoms). 0.8%), Mo (0.2-0.3%), Ni (1.65-2.0%), and Si (0.15-0.3%) (Ref The objective of this research is to follow-up on the 29). A Sodick AQ325L Electro Discharge Machine (EDM) was previous study (Ref 25) and to determine the effect of used to cut the as-received plate into 96 Charpy specimens and different cadmium plating thicknesses (varying hydrogen 96 tensile specimens. charging content) on the Charpy impact values of 4340 steel. The dimensions of the tensile specimens were in accordance Specifically, this work addresses the question whether a with ASTM E8 (Ref 30), and tensile testing was performed on simple, high strain rate, fast procedure, namely Charpy impact an INSTRON 4505 universal testing unit. The standard Charpy testing, can detect the presence of hydrogen in ultra-high V-notch specimens were machined according to ASTM E23 strength steels or not? (Ref 31) and were tested by a SONNTAG Impact Tester with a 325-J capacity, S/N model 044-1811.