Maintenance Strategy for Prevention and Protection of Industrial Component from Failure due to Hydrogen Embrittlement

Abstract

Hydrogen embrittlement is a well-known phenomenon in which a metal is weakened by the incorporation of hydrogen in or below its surface. Hydrogen embrittlement (HE) of steels is of great concern in many industries e.g. power, fuel, aerospace, automobile, transportation & other critical applications, where failure can have catastrophic consequences. This paper focuses on the failure aspect of industrial components on account of hydrogen embrittlement and prevention of such failures to avoid accidents thereby enhancing the system reliability and safety as an objective of maintenance strategy. The prevention of HE is an important concern for designers, manufacturers and application engineers. This is particularly true with respect to the selection and application of materials, manufacturing process, application environment & service conditions. In course of describing the techniques for protection from HE, the various important aspects of hydrogen embrittlement e.g. failure characteristics, mechanism, identification, testing etc. have been discussed with a view to provide a complete insight of subject. This paper presents a review of recent research emphasising to protect the equipments components from HE failure leading to enhancement in service life. The literature shows that despite much work has been done on hydrogen embrittlement, the scientist agree that much is still not understood and considerable discussion exists regarding the mechanisms. However, one thing is certain; hydrogen can cause damage to material.