Hydrogen assisted cracking of high-strength steels for civil engineering purposes

Progressive cold drawing in eutectoid steels affects the material microstructure producing orientation and packing of the pearlite lamellae, as well as orientation and enlargement of the pearlite colonies. In this paper the consequences of this evolution on the hydrogen induced fracture behaviour of the steels is studied. Results show that cold drawing produces anisotropy in the steel, so that the resistance to hydrogen assisted cracking is a directional property dependent on the angle with the cold drawing direction.