Proposal of a hydrogen embrittlement index for a martensitic advanced high-strength steel

This paper proposes a definition of a Hydrogen Embrittlement Index for assessing structural components made by a martensitic advanced high-strength steel. A material model, including a damage model and a fracture criterion, was developed to reproduce the tensile behaviour until fracture nucleation under different hydrogen concentrations. The analysis of the tests with different specimen geometries demonstrated that the maximum principal strain at fracture is correlated to hydrogen concentration, and it can be used to define the embrittlement index for quantifying the hydrogen susceptibility of material in a wide range of notch severity.