Hydrogen effect on fracture toughness of pipeline steel welds, with in situ hydrogen charging

The API 5L X70 and X52 pipeline steel weld fracture toughness parameters are measured in a hydrogen environment and compared to the ones in air. The hydrogen environment is created by in situ hydrogen charging, using as an electrolyte a simulated soil solution, with three current densities, namely 1, 5 and 10 mA/cm(2). A specially designed electrolytic cell mounted onto a three-point bending arrangement is used and hydrogen charging is performed during the monotonic loading of the specimens. Ductility is measured in terms of the J(0) integral. In all cases a slight change in toughness was measured in terms of K-Q. Reduction of ductility in the base metal is observed, which increases with increasing current density. A more complex phenomenon is observed in the heat affected zone metal, where a small reduction in ductility is observed for the two current densities (1 and 5 mA/cm(2)) and a larger reduction for the third case (10 mA/cm(2)). Regarding microstructure of tested X70 and X52 base and HAZ metal, it is observed that the hydrogen degradation effect is enhanced in banded ferrite-pearlite formations. The aforementioned procedure is used for calculating the fracture toughness parameters of a through-thickness pipeline crack. Copyright (C) 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.