New insights into hydrogen trapping and embrittlement in high strength aluminum alloys
Mahdieh Safyari, Nabil Khossossi, Thomas Meisel, Poulumi Dey, Thomas Prohaska, Masoud Moshtaghi
Abstract
An attractive approach to mitigate hydrogen embrittlement (HE) is to use nano-sized particles to immobilize hydrogen. However, atomic scale relationship between different particle-matrix characteristics in aluminum alloys and the susceptibility to HE is unknown. In this study, effects of interactions between various interfaces and hydrogen in aluminum alloys are investigated using a comprehensive multiscale experimental and simulation-based approach that includes atomic scale observations, simulation and advanced hydrogen mapping techniques. Depending on the nature of interfaces, e.g., coherency, size, and crystal structure, some are useful for mitigating HE, others provide hydrogen to sensitive sites, and some act as crack initiation sites.