Hydrogen effect on the mechanical behaviour and microstructural features of a Fe-Mn-C twinning induced plasticity steel

The influences of hydrogen on the mechanical properties and the fracture behaviour of Fe-22Mn-0.6C twinning induced plasticity steel have been investigated by slow strain rate tests and fractographic analysis. The steel showed high susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement, which led to 62.9% and 74.2% reduction in engineering strain with 3.1 and 14.4 ppm diffusive hydrogen, respectively. The fracture surfaces revealed a transition from ductile to brittle dominated fracture modes with the rising hydrogen contents. The underlying deformation and fracture mechanisms were further exploited by examining the hydrogen effects on the dislocation substructure, stacking fault probability, and twinning behaviour in pre-strained slow strain rate test specimens and notched tensile specimens using coupled electron channelling contrast imaging and electron backscatter diffraction techniques. The results reveal that the addition of hydrogen promotes planar dislocation structures, earlier nucleation of stacking faults, and deformation twinning within those grains which have tensile axis orientations close to //rolling direction and <112gt;//rolling direction. The developed twin lamellae result in strain localization and micro-voids at grain boundaries and eventually lead to grain boundary decohesion.