Hydrogen-induced crack nucleation in tensile testing of EUROFER 97 and ODS-EUROFER steels at elevated temperature

Continuous hydrogen charging results in a reduction of the grain boundary cohesion of the EUROFER 97 and ODS-EUROFER steels tested at RT. With increase of the testing temperature up to 300 °C EUROFER 97 steel exhibits relatively high amount of micro-cracks which agglomerate in sub-micrometer size cracks, while the hydrogen-induced intergranular crack nucleation in ODS-EUROFER steel is effectively suppressed. Possible mechanism of the hydrogen-induced crack nucleation and propagation under applied external stress is discussed.