Hydrogen embrittlement of medium mn steels

Abstract

Recent research efforts to develop advanced–/ultrahigh–strength medium-Mn steels have led to the development of a variety of alloying concepts, thermo-mechanical processing routes, and microstructural variants for these steel grades. However, certain grades of ad-vanced–/ultrahigh–strength steels (A/UHSS) are known to be highly susceptible to hydrogen em-brittlement, due to their high strength levels. Hydrogen embrittlement characteristics of medi-um–Mn steels are less understood compared to other classes of A/UHSS, such as high Mn twin-ning–induced plasticity steel, because of the relatively short history of the development of this steel class and the complex nature of multiphase, fine-grained microstructures that are present in me-dium–Mn steels. The motivation of this paper is to review the current understanding of the hydrogen embrittlement characteristics of medium or intermediate Mn (4 to 15 wt pct) multiphase steels and to address various alloying and processing strategies that are available to enhance the hydrogen-resistance of these steel grades.