Hollow Specimen Method for Tests in High-Pressure Hydrogen Gas: The Role of Strain-Rate and Surface Quality
- As the world moves towards a decarbonised economy, the demand for sustainable and low-carbon alternatives is growing rapidly. Hydrogen has an important role to play in this transition, but in order to make the most of hydrogen as an energy carrier, a comprehensive understanding of its impact on the integrity of structural materials is necessary. Metallic materials, mainly steels, are the most commonly used structural materials in various components throughout the hydrogen supply chain. Ensuring their sustainable and safe use in hydrogen technologies is a crucial factor in the development of the hydrogen economy. This is particularly important since hydrogen can promote crack formation and ultimately lead to premature failure in these materials when combined with mechanical load. This process is commonly known as Hydrogen Embrittlement and can occur in almost all the steels used for the hydrogen technologies. Extensive materials qualification is required for the rapid implementation ofAs the world moves towards a decarbonised economy, the demand for sustainable and low-carbon alternatives is growing rapidly. Hydrogen has an important role to play in this transition, but in order to make the most of hydrogen as an energy carrier, a comprehensive understanding of its impact on the integrity of structural materials is necessary. Metallic materials, mainly steels, are the most commonly used structural materials in various components throughout the hydrogen supply chain. Ensuring their sustainable and safe use in hydrogen technologies is a crucial factor in the development of the hydrogen economy. This is particularly important since hydrogen can promote crack formation and ultimately lead to premature failure in these materials when combined with mechanical load. This process is commonly known as Hydrogen Embrittlement and can occur in almost all the steels used for the hydrogen technologies. Extensive materials qualification is required for the rapid implementation of hydrogen technologies, however, most accepted, and standardised test methods for determining the effect of gaseous hydrogen on metallic materials describe complex and costly procedures that are only available to a very limited extent worldwide.
The hollow specimen technique is a simple and economical method that has the potential to overcome the limitations of the current methods and complement them for qualifying metallic materials under high-pressure hydrogen gas. Unlike the conventional autoclave technique, this method requires significantly lower amounts of hydrogen, resulting in fewer safety measures and no need for complex equipment or a specialised laboratory. The technique's low investment and testing costs, simple operation, and shorter testing time make it an optimal for widespread use around the world, thereby increasing the output of results.
Initial studies have demonstrated the feasibility of assessing hydrogen effects in metallic materials using the hollow specimen technique. This led to the establishment of an ISO committee to standardise the method. However, there are open questions that currently prevent the technique from being standardised for hydrogen testing. These open questions relate to specimen geometry, inner hole surface and gas quality and are being addressed in the H2HohlZug project, of which the overall aim is to systematically close the gaps towards a standard. This contribution presents the structure and milestones of the project, followed by initial results.…

