Effects of rolling and heat treatment on hydrogen embrittlement in medium-Mn steel

• Published in: Materials letters Vol. 305; p. 130784
• Main Authors: Xu, Juanping, Wang, Zheng, Fu, Hao, Li, Jinxu, Wu, Ming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15-12-2021; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Annealing; Cold rolling; Crack; Grain boundaries; Heat treating; Heat treatment; Hot rolling; Hydrogen embrittlement; Manganese steels; Materials science; Medium-Mn steel; Metals and alloys; Nickel; Prior austenite grain boundary; Recrystallization; Warm rolling; Warm working; Prior austenite grain boundary; Metals and alloys; Hydrogen embrittlement; Recrystallization; Medium-Mn steel; Crack
• ISSN: 0167-577X; 1873-4979
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matlet.2021.130784

•Warm- and cold- rolling processes increase the resistance to hydrogen embrittlement.•Elimination of prior austenite boundaries and martensite reduce cracks forming.•Increase the uniformity of the microstructure hinder the propagation of cracks.
Three types of medium-Mn steels were prepared, i.e., HR-QT with hot rolling - quenching - tempering, and WR5-CA/WR1-CA with warm rolling - soft annealing (5 h for WR5-CA and 1 h for WR1-CA) - cold rolling - annealing. HR-QT exhibited significant hydrogen embrittlement (HE). Warm and cold rolling processes were carried out to eliminate the prior austenite grain boundaries. 1 h soft annealing process before the cold rolling and intercritical annealing after it were carried out to achieve a homogeneous microstructure. It was observed that WR1-CA exhibited the lowest HE susceptibility. Thus, in this study, we report a convenient strategy for improving the HE resistance of medium-Mn steels.