PSI - Issue 53

L.B. Peral et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 53 (2024) 52–57 L.B. Peral / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000–000

53

2

and elbows requires specific geometries that can be optimized through additive manufacturing. It has been reported that additively manufactured 316L boasts superior mechanical properties than those of conventional state [1]. However, greater absorption of hydrogen can be induced in the SLMed 316L [2] because of its higher density of dislocations, induced due to the rapid cooling rates during solidification. In addition, the influence of SLM defects and surface finishing in hydrogen diffusion must be better understood [2,3]. Accordingly, new production techniques, especially additive manufacturing, require re-evaluation of hydrogen susceptibility of austenitic stainless steels. In this work, smooth and notched tensile samples have been electrochemically precharged. Tensile behavior, with internal hydrogen, was studied at different strain rates and hydrogen embrittlement is discussed in terms of the operative fracture micromechanisms.

2. Experimental procedure 2.1 Material and processing

AISI 316L was additively manufactured with an ALBA 300 machine, following parameters given in Table 1. The chemical composition of the printed material is shown in Table 2. Hot extraction samples to determine hydrogen concentration and tensile samples were printed simultaneously on the same platform of the ALBA 300 machine. Table 1. Printing parameters in ALBA 300 machine

Laser power (W)

Scanning speed (mm/s)

Hatching distance (mm)

225

650

0.1

Table 2. Chemical composition in weight percent (wt. %)

Fe

C

Cr 18

Ni 12

Mo

balance

0.02

2

2.2 Hydrogen precharging and hot extraction Hydrogen was introduced in samples with a geometry of 10 mm x 10 mm x 1 mm. A current density of 8 mA/cm 2 was applied for 24 hours at room temperature (RT) in 1M H 2 SO 4 solution, added with 0.25 g/l As 2 O 3 (pH ൎ 1). Hydrogen absorption was analyzed by means of the hot extraction technique. Samples were heated at 1100ºC for 300 s in a LECO DH603 hydrogen analyser.

Figure 1. Hydrogen precharging in tensile samples. Experimental set up

2.3 Tensile tests and fracture surfaces. Tensile tests were carried out in a MTS Series 40 machine. In order to study the influence of hydrogen at different strain rates, tensile tests were done from 0.1 to 0.005 mm/min. Smooth and notched samples were used with the tensile direction parallel to the printing direction of the additively manufactured 316L samples. The width and thickness of tensile samples were 5 and 1 mm, respectively. The gauge length of samples was 20 mm. In the case of the notched