Effect of Hydrogen on High Cycle Fatigue Properties of L360 Pipeline Steel Notched Specimens.

The fatigue characteristics of notched specimens of L360 pipeline steel in hydrogen and nitrogen environments were investigated by high cycle fatigue life tests and fatigue crack growth rate tests. The fracture morphology in the nitrogen environment was dominated by microcracks and fatigue strips. The fatigue fracture had distinctly different regions in the hydrogen environment. The outer region of the fracture in the hydrogen environment was similar to the nitrogen environment, but a large number of hydrogen embrittlement features were found in the inner region. The fatigue crack growth rate tests were analyzed in conjunction with fatigue life tests. It was found that more fatigue cycles were required to achieve the stress intensity factor ΔK for rapid hydrogen-promoted crack propagation at lower stress. The region with hydrogen embrittlement features increases with decreasing stress.