Prevention of ductility loss in hydrogen-charged steel by gamma-ray irradiation

Hydrogen is known as a constituent which degrades the mechanical properties of metals and alloys, particularly their ductility. The degradation of mechanical properties, called hydrogen embrittlement, is a serious problem in metals and alloys under a hydrogen environment, e.g., pickling, welding, plating, etc. Although many researches have been made to clarify the nature and the mechanism of hydrogen embrittlement in steels (1), little has been reported on the method of prevention of hydrogen embrittlement except for works by Pressouyre and Bernstein (2,3). They showed that the susceptibility of ferrous alloys to hydrogen embrittlement is reduced by addition of titanium. Recently, we found that hydrogen in stainless steels is outgassed upon exposure to ionizing radiation (4-7). Therefore, hydrogen embrittlement in steels is expected to be influenced by ionizing radiation. This study was undertaken to determine the extent of prevension of hydrogen embrittlement by examining the effect of gammairradiation on the ductility in a low carbon steel electrolytically charged with hydrogen