Hydrogen Embrittlement Testing

About Hydrogen Embrittlement Testing

Hydrogen evolution is the most common by product in the electrodeposition process which may be co-deposited onto the surface of the substrate along with the metal ions. This can result in a potentially harmful condition known as hydrogen embrittlement. Hydrogen embrittlement is a loss of ductility due to excess hydrogen absorption, which makes the material brittle.

ASTM F 519 describes the mechanical test methods to evaluate the susceptibility of plating/coating process to undergo hydrogen embrittlement. Additionally, subsequent exposure to encountered service environment can also be evaluated using this test method. We perform test using notched c-ring self-loading specimen as per Annex2 of ASTM F519 wherein an incremental step loading technique is used to detect the onset of subcritical crack growth as a measure of the threshold stress that is used to quantify the amount of residual hydrogen in a specimen..