- Fine-grain, high-strength, low-alloy (HSLA) structural steels with yield strengths > 600 MPa are now the state of the art in construction applications such as mobile cranes and civil engineering. HSLA grades derive their strength from a combination of specific heat treatment and the underlying chemical composition. In this context, Ti or Nb are essential to obtain a fine-grained microstructure as well as the necessary carbides or nitrides for precipitation strengthening. In this context, the specific effect of Ti or Nb-rich compounds on hydrogen trapping and diffusion is well known for special laboratory cast alloys, but unknown for realistic steel compositions. For this reason, a series of S690Q-based alloys were synthesized, close to a real steel composition, but with well controlled Ti or Nb additions in different amounts. Specimens were obtained from these alloys by electrochemical discharge machining (EDM). The specimens were tested using the well-established electrochemicalFine-grain, high-strength, low-alloy (HSLA) structural steels with yield strengths > 600 MPa are now the state of the art in construction applications such as mobile cranes and civil engineering. HSLA grades derive their strength from a combination of specific heat treatment and the underlying chemical composition. In this context, Ti or Nb are essential to obtain a fine-grained microstructure as well as the necessary carbides or nitrides for precipitation strengthening. In this context, the specific effect of Ti or Nb-rich compounds on hydrogen trapping and diffusion is well known for special laboratory cast alloys, but unknown for realistic steel compositions. For this reason, a series of S690Q-based alloys were synthesized, close to a real steel composition, but with well controlled Ti or Nb additions in different amounts. Specimens were obtained from these alloys by electrochemical discharge machining (EDM). The specimens were tested using the well-established electrochemical permeation technique. From the experimental results, the hydrogen diffusion coefficients and the analytical subsurface hydrogen concentration were calculated. In addition, the hydrogen trapping behavior at elevated temperatures was interpreted by thermal desorption analysis (TDA) using different heating rates of hydrogen charged samples. The results showed that in contrast to metallurgically "pure" laboratory cast alloys, realistic chemical compositions were similar in their hydrogen trapping behavior, despite some small differences. All investigated steel grades exhibited shallow and reversible hydrogen trapping, regardless of their chemical composition. Of course, the experiments only allowed the calculation of effective diffusion coefficients and trapping energies, which represent an average of the entire microstructure. Nevertheless, HSLA steels are typically joined by arc welding, which includes the risk of delayed hydrogen assisted cracking. From the point of view of welding practice, however, a more or less identical hydrogen diffusion behavior means that no special "metallurgically specific", justifiable measures need to be considered, despite the well-established processes such as "soaking" or dehydrogenation heat treatment.…

