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Testing the resistance of low-alloyed steel welds for pressurized gaseous hydrogen applications
(2024)
Green hydrogen has become an essential energy carrier to achieve a climate-neutral economy. The production, storage, transport and usage of green hydrogen (GH2) requires facilities and systems that are safe and sustainable. Systems for GH2 facilities, especially for storage and transport are mainly assembled of welded steel components. These components are exposed to the gaseous hydrogen environment throughout their service life. In contrast to hydrogen absorption from electrochemical environments entailing hydrogen-assisted corrosion cracking, the absorption and material degradation in gaseous environments have less been investigated. Nevertheless, the degradation of mechanical properties in materials and their welds due to absorbed hydrogen poses significant risks, including cracking and leakages. To ensure the safety and reliability of GH2 facilities throughout their service life, it is crucial to investigate and prevent such hydrogen-induced degradation, thereby avoiding potential incidental and accidental scenarios.
Due to the worldwide technology push for new energy carriers like GH2 and its derivates, extensive research and testing of welded components is not an option to avoid delays in the GH2-readiness of respective facilities. The present contribution shows how to investigate the compatibility of low alloyed steels and their welds for GH2 storage and transport subjected to quasi-static mechanical loads in principle by utilizing the Slow Strain Rate Test (SSRT) with the Hollow Specimen Technique (HST). Exemplarily, low-alloyed steel welds of the P355NL1 type currently used for hydrogen storage tanks at intermediate pressures have been investigated and compared to welds of type X65, as a very common pipeline material.
Test results show a higher value of the Hydrogen Embrittlement Index (HEI) in weld specimens than the base specimens in both investigated materials. HEI of 8.3% was recorded in base specimens and 15% in weld specimens of P355NL1, while X65 EI gives 30.2% in BM and 27.7 in WM. The fractography analysis reveals that hydrogen promotes the transition from tensile fracture to brittle fracture. Hydrogen did not show any effect on the yield strength and tensile strength of all tested specimens. However, it affects the plastic elongation of the tested materials. In conclusion, the obtained HEI values indicate a mild but significant degradation in the materials. The results confirm that hydrogen absorption from gaseous environments leads to a reduction in the mechanical properties of steels and their welds, with a more pronounced impact on ductility than on strength.
Metallic materials, predominantly steels, are the most common structural materials in the various components along the hydrogen supply chain. Ensuring their sustainable and safe use in hydrogen technologies is a key factor in the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy. This requires extensive materials qualification, however, most of the accepted; and standardized test methods for determining the influence 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, rapid, and economical method designed to overcome the limitations of the current methods for the qualification of metallic materials under high-pressure hydrogen gas. However, this technique is not yet standardized. The TransHyDE-H2Hohlzug project is presented in this article, along with the main steps required to optimize the hollow specimen technique. This includes closing knowledge gaps related to the specimen geometry, surface quality, and gas purity in dedicated working packages, thus contributing to a comprehensive standardization of the technique for tests in high-pressure hydrogen gas.
Aufbauend auf dem historischen Schadensfall von A. Martens im Jahr 1894 zur Explosion von H2-Gasflaschen auf dem Tempelhofer Feld und den dabei durchgeführten Untersuchungen wird im Hauptteil des Vortrages auf die Standardisierung der Hohlzugprüftechnik eingegangen. Dabei wird zunächst auf die Vor- und Nachteile unterschiedlicher Prüfmöglichkeiten zur Wasserstoffkompatibilität metallischer Werkstoffe und deren Schweißverbindungen eingegangen und im Weiteren die Umsetzung der Prüftechnik an der BAM beschrieben. Für die Standardisierung der Hohlzugprüftechnik wurden verschiedene Randbedingungen mit Einfluss auf die Ergebnisqualität überprüft. Dabei wurde der Pipelinestahl X65 als auch der additiv gefertigte Werkstoff 316L genutzt. Abschließend wird auf die Verwaltungspartnerschaft mit Namibia eingegangen und die umzusetzenden Projekte mit Bezug zur Schweißtechnik dargestellt.
The energy transition towards hydrogen utilisation has increased the demand for reliable testing methods to evaluate the susceptibility of metallic materials to hydrogen degradation. However, traditional electrochemical pre-charging techniques have limitations in represent-ing realistic gaseous hydrogen exposure conditions. This study presents three comparative analyses of tensile testing methodologies, focusing on the differences between electrochem-ical pre-charging, gaseous pre-charging, and in-situ testing using hollow specimens for aus-tenitic steels AISI 304L and 316L type austenitic steels.
Based on the results obtained, the first comparison reveals that electrochemically pre-charged and gaseously pre-charged specimens exhibit different behaviours regarding the impact on the mechanical properties. This effect can be retraced to the varying distribution of hydrogen throughout the specimens. Although comparable embrittlement was observed for similar hydrogen concentrations, the relationship appears to be non-systematic.
The second comparison evaluates the performance of pre-charged hollow specimens (300°C, 100 bar, 21 days) in comparison to hollow specimens tested in-situ under 200 bar hydrogen during slow strain rate tensile tests (SSRT). While pre-charged specimens show a slight de-crease in elongation at fracture and a noticeable decrease in reduction of area (RA), in-situ tested specimens exhibit significantly more pronounced embrittlement. This is in accord-ance with the results of Michler et. al.
In the third comparison, geometry effects between pre-charged conventional and pre-charged hollow specimens are explored. In this case, the hydrogen effect appears to be of the same order of magnitude for both specimen types, although some differences are ob-served.
The study's findings underscore the importance of considering differences between test methods when assessing materials’ compatibility with hydrogen. It specifically emphasises the need for in-situ testing with gaseous hydrogen to better represent real conditions in ap-plications within the hydrogen sector. Furthermore, the study provides an initial compari-son between conventional and hollow specimens, demonstrating their capability to reveal hydrogen effects. However, additional research is essential to enhance the comparability of results yielded by these testing methods.
Compatibility of welded austenitic stainless steel (316L) tube for green hydrogen applications
(2024)
The increase in the energy demand and the need to comply to net zero carbon regulations, as per the Paris 2015 climate agreement by 2050, has necessitated the urgency to consider hydrogen as alternative energy carrier. Moreover, hydrogen interaction with metals tend to cause degradation of the mechanical properties in terms of the ductility of the materials. More concern is on the weldment and repair of tubes or pipelines of hydrogen transportation and storage systems. In this study, the heat inducted weld tubes of the cold drawn and annealed austenitic stainless steel (316L) were investigated by slow strain rate test. To achieve the most realistic component-related testing, hollow tube specimens have been fabricated from 1/2-inch Swagelok pipes filled with internal gaseous hydrogen or inert air for reference. The hydrogen concentration measurement is undertaken before and after the autoclave high-pressure pre-charging of the specimens using carrier gas hot extraction. SEM analysis was used to carry out fractographic analysis to determine the crack initiation sites, crack size and was compared for the base material and heat affected zone influence in the gaseous hydrogen. The effect of hydrogen on the material compatibility of the welded austenitic stainless steel is assessed and compared to none-welded tubes tested in defined testing parameters that contribute to Hydrogen Assisted Cracking. A better understanding on the impact of weldment on the structural integrity for stainless steel is elucidated for green hydrogen application.
The hydrogen economy is one of the most important solutions to achieve climate neutrality in Europe. It involves the production, storage, transport and use of large quantities of hydrogen in existing and new infrastructures. Components along this supply chain, such as pipelines and storage tanks, are made of various metallic materials, with steel being the most common construction material. The rapid introduction of hydrogen therefore brings with it major challenges, in particular the need for comprehensive qualification of components and materials to ensure the sustainable and safe use of hydrogen technologies. This article provides an overview of the state of the art in the testing of materials and components as well as corresponding future trends and developments for a successful transition to a hydrogen economy.
The following contribution presents the analyses of additively manufactured (AM) 316L using hollow specimens at 200 bar hydrogen and a strain rate of 1E-5 s-1. The work includes a comparison of three types of hollow specimens: mechanically extracted from fully additively manufactured cylinders, near-net-shape additively manufactured specimens, i.e. as printed, and specimens made of conventional 316L. AM specimens were manufactured via powder bed fusion with laser beam of metals (PBF-LB/M). For the near-net-shape specimens the inner hole remained without any mechanical processing. The inner holes of the cylindric specimens were manufactured by drilling with subsequent honing.
The susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement was found to be strongly dependent on the surface being in contact with hydrogen. While specimens with a clean surface had a relative reduction of area (RRA) of around 78 %, those with an as-printed surface showed a significantly larger RRA of around 90 %. One possible reason for this are oxide layers formed due to small amounts of oxygen during the AM-process.
Further research is required to determine if the lower effect on the mechanical properties is permanently for as printed parts or e.g. time dependent. Additionally, further work with variation in the nominal strain rate is required.
The key for a transition into clean energy sources is based on the construction of safe energy infrastructure, such as transportation pipelines for Hydrogen. Duplex Stainless Steels (DSS) are an essential component used nowadays in the construction of transportation pipelines because of their many distinctive qualities. The choice of DSS for a particular hydrogen application mainly depends on its susceptibility level to Hydrogen Embrittlement (HE) or Hydrogen Assisted Cracking (HAC). Since the 20th century, the literature indicates three factors that must be considered: the microstructure of the alloy steel, the hydrogen concentration, and the mechanical load. Several mechanisms have been also proposed to describe the occurring microscale processes behind HE or HAC, and these include metastable phase transformation, Hydrogen Enhanced Localized Plasticity (HELP), and Hydrogen Enhanced Decohesion (HEDE).
The following contribution describes the path to ascertain if DSS is suitable for high-pressure gaseous hydrogen applications. The interplay between several critical factors that result in HAC was examined using high-pressure gaseous hydrogen charging, Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD), and hydrogen concentration measurements using Carrier Gas Hot Extraction (CGHE). It was determined whether the strain-induced martensitic transformation of the austenite was present in a DSS 1.4462 (DSS2205) in-service pipe and in samples of freshly charged DSS 1.4462. In comparison to the common electrochemical charging described broadly in the literature, no major direct martensitic phase transformation of the austenite phase under a high-pressure hydrogen environment was observed. As for future experiments, the intention is to analyse the impact of high-pressure gaseous hydrogen on the welded components of this grade, and under mechanical load via the hollow specimen technique.
To accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy while exploiting existing infrastructure, hydrogen can be injected to the natural gas network. However, many technical and regulatory gaps should be closed, and adaptations and investments made to ensure that multi-gas networks across Europe will be able to operate in a reliable and safe way while providing a highly controllable gas quality and required energy demand. The SHIMMER project aims to enable a higher integration and safer hydrogen injection management in multi-gas networks by contributing to the knowledge and better understanding of hydrogen projects, their risks, and opportunities.
The hollow specimen technique is a simple and economical method
that has the potential to overcome the limitations and complement
the current techniques for qualifying metallic materials under highpressure
hydrogen gas.
In this technique, an axial hole is manufactured in a tensile
specimen, which is then filled with hydrogen gas, sealed, and
placed in a standard testing machine. This method requires
significantly lower amounts of hydrogen, resulting in fewer safety
measures and does not require complex equipment or a specialised
laboratory, unlike the conventional autoclave technique.
Initial studies have demonstrated the feasibility of assessing
hydrogen effects in metallic materials using the hollow specimen
technique. This led to the establishment of the committee ISO/TC
164/SC 1/WG 9 to standardise the method, however, there are still
open questions that currently prevent the technique from being
standardised for hydrogen testing. These open questions are being
addressed in the H2HohlZug project, which is presented in this
contribution.
The growing demand for hydrogen requires an expansion of testing capabilities to assess the performance of metallic materials under hydrogen exposure. Considering only gaseous atmospheres, there is a variety of in-situ and ex-situ methods used to investigate the material behavior while or after exposed to hydrogen, respectively.
Among these methods, a more conservative one is the in-situ testing at slow strain rates (SSRT) using conventional tensile specimens. While results obtained by a conservative procedure may be more applicable in many cases than those of ex-situ experiments, the tests are quite demanding, leading to limited testing capacities and high costs, especially for very slow strain rates. A possible solution that can enable in-situ testing at relatively low cost is the hollow specimen technique which gained increasing interest in the last decade. The main reasons are the minimal volume of hydrogen required and the elimination of a high-pressure hydrogen autoclave leading to significantly lower costs and enabling more laboratories worldwide to perform these tests. However, interpreting results from hollow specimens, especially when compared to conventional ones, remains a significant challenge.
To address this, an experimental study was conducted using conventional and hollow specimens, both uncharged and pre-charged. Pre-charging was achieved using pure hydrogen (5.0, i.e. 99.999 %) at 100 bar and 300 °C for around 21 days. In order to obtain suitable reference specimens, other specimens were stored in argon at 100 bar and 300 °C for the same period of time. The tests were performed at various strain rates, down to 1E-6 1/s.
While these ex-situ experiments are not directly comparable to in-situ tests with both types of specimens, they do provide some insights into the differences between the results of hollow and conventional specimens. Therefore, the elongation at fracture and reduction of area (RA) were compared, among other aspects. In addition, fractographical analyses were carried out using SEM images. Elongation at fracture was not significantly affected by hydrogen in conventional specimens, but it was slightly reduced in hollow specimens. RA, on the other hand, was lower for tests with hydrogen in both types of specimens across all strain rates. Moreover, the strain rate did not appear to influence hydrogen embrittlement in conventional specimens whereas in hollow specimens, tests conducted at higher strain rates (1E-4 1/s) showed a greater impact of hydrogen on elongation at fracture than those at lower strain rates (1E-6 1/s), which is contrary to the typical expectation.
These findings suggest that the influence of hydrogen differs between conventional and hollow specimens, possibly due to factors such as surface roughness and differing stress states. However, further experiments are needed to fully understand these differences, including in-situ experiments to understand potential differences in hydrogen absorption between the two specimen types.
The hydrogen economy is one of the main solutions for achieving climate neutrality in Europe. Metallic materials, predominantly steels, are the most common structural materials in the various components along the hydrogen supply chain. Ensuring their sustainable and safe use in hydrogen technologies is a key factor in the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy. This requires extensive materials qualification, however, most of the accepted, and standardised test methods for determining the influence of gaseous hydrogen on metallic materials describe complex and costly procedures that are only available to a very limited extent worldwide (e.g., autoclave technique).
The hollow specimen technique is presented as an alternative method that can overcome the limitations of current techniques and complement them. To standardise the technique, a process has been initiated by ISO in 2021. Knowledge gaps for tests with the technique in hydrogen have been identified by DIN. The H2HohlZug project, which falls under the umbrella of TransHyDE, aims to address the identified knowledge gaps and provide a foundation for a comprehensive standardisation of the hollow specimen technique.
The poster starts by presenting the current limitations of the methods used to assess hydrogen effects on materials. Next, an alternative technique called the Hollow Specimen Technique is presented, which aims to overcome the limitations of the current standardised techniques, followed by its advantages. Finally, the H2HohlZug project, its work packages and objectives are presented.