Sunday, June 28, 2020
Hydrogen embrittlement has been of ongoing interest to materials science community and industries over the past several decades. In-situ electrochemical nanoindentation became a versatile tool for probing the impact of electrochemical charging on different materials and technical relevant alloy systems. Besides measuring the classical mechanical properties, such as hardness and Young’s modulus, deeper inside in the acting deformation processes can be gained by advanced nanoindentation testing methods. The so called nanoindentation strain-rate jump tests allow determining the local strain-rate sensitivity by abrupt strain-rate changes. The advantages and possibilities of this method are demonstrated on the precipitation hardened nickel-based alloy, which is widely used in subsea applications. The combination of laser confocal microscopy allows to analyze the plastically deformed zone around the indents and gives insight on the changes in slip step characteristics under hydrogen charging.
