Hollow specimen (left) and µCT-image of cracks in a hollow specimen tested in hydrogen atmosphere
Source: BAM FB 3.4
teThe great potential of hydrogen as an energy carrier for a climate-neutral economy is leading to an increasing number of applications in which gaseous hydrogen is used. With the increase in technical applications, the number of components, thus the materials used and exposed to the gaseous medium "hydrogen" during operation is also increasing. Many of these components, for example in current natural gas infrastructure, are made of low-alloy steels. Contact with hydrogen can lead to a degradation of the material properties of various metals, including these common pipeline steels.
This work visualizes in an innovative way the effects of hydrogen on the crack morphology of a pipeline steel when exposed to an atmosphere of gaseous hydrogen and subjected to a tensile test. The tests used here were carried out using the hollow tensile specimen technique, which was developed further at BAM. The novel combination with the non-destructive μCT-test visualizes in an evident way how the effect of hydrogen under realistic operating pressure of 60 bar influences the crack morphology in the tested specimens.
Evaluation of the impact of gaseous hydrogen on pipeline steels utilizing hollow specimen technique and μCT
Florian Konert, Frank Wieder, Jonathan Nietzke, Dietmar Meinel, Thomas Böllinghaus, Oded Sobol
published in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Volume 59, Pages 874-879, 2024.