Analysis of a weld of an hydrogen tank under pressure: contribution of the nano-indentation for the characterization

This work deals with the size of an hydrogen spherical tank under pressure, composed of two half shell in aluminium alloy AZ5G machined in a forged bar and welded by electrons beam by a circumference. In this work, it is shown what the nano-indentation test can bring here. The influence of the tempering heat treatment after welding, the grains diameter and the loss in alloy elements (Zn and Mg) on the local mechanical properties of the weld bead has been revealed. In the same way, a hardening of the alloy due to the hydrogen penetration and leading to an increase of the dislocations density is observed. (O.M.)