On factors influencing fatigue process in steel 316L used in hydrogen energy technologies

Full text: Investigations of fatigue in steels exposed to hydrogen media is extremely important problem, hi this work, an austenitic stainless steel ASTM 316L resistant to hydrogen destructive influence is examined. The experiments presented have used hydrogen charged and uncharged specimens and were carried out under rotating bending and tension-compression fatigue in three different laboratories: at The University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy, Sofia, Bulgaria; at Sandia National Laboratory, California and The University of Tufts, Medford, Massachusetts, USA; The Institute Hydrogenous at Kyushu University, Japan. The results are presented in Wohler curves complemented by 'Short fatigue crack length - Number of cycles' curves and 'Frequency - Lifetimes' plots, and compared respectively. key words: fatigue, hydrogen fatigue, stainless steel, Wohler curve, short fatigue crack