Tensile properties of ADI material in water and gaseous environments

Austempered ductile iron (ADI) is an advanced type of heat treated ductile iron, having comparable mechanical properties as forged steels. However, it was found that in contact with water the mechanical properties of austempered ductile irons decrease, especially their ductility. Despite considerable scientific attention, the cause of this phenomenon remains unclear. Some authors suggested that hydrogen or small atom chemisorption causes the weakening of the surface atomic bonds. To get additional reliable data of that phenomenon, in this paper, two different types of austempered ductile irons were tensile tested in various environments, such as: argon, helium, hydrogen gas and water. It was found that only the hydrogen gas and water gave a statistically significant decrease in mechanical properties, i.e. cause embrittlement. Furthermore, the fracture surface analysis revealed that the morphology of the embrittled zone near the specimen surface shares similarities to the fatigue micro-containing striation-like lines, which indicates that the morphology of the brittle zone may be caused by cyclic local-chemisorption, micro-embrittlement and local-fracture.