A Model to Account for the Effects of Load Ratio and Hydrogen Pressure on the Fatigue Crack Growth Behavior of Pressure Vessel Steels

A phenomenological model for estimating the effects of load ratio R and hydrogen pressure PH2 on the hydrogen-assisted fatigue crack growth rate (HA-FCGR) behavior in the transient and steady-state regimes of pressure vessel steels is described. The "transient regime" is identified with crack growth within a severely embrittled zone of intense plasticity at the crack tip. The "steady-state" behavior is associated with the crack growing into a region of comparatively lower hydrogen concentration located further away from the crack tip. The model treats the effects of R and PH2 as being functionally separable. In the transient regime, the effects of the hydrogen pressure on the HA-FCGR behavior were negligible but were significant in the steady-state regime. The hydrogen concentration in the steady-state region is modeled as being dependent on the kinetics of lattice diffusion, which is sensitive to pressure. Experimental HA-FCGR data from the literature were used to validate the model. The new model was shown to be valid over a wide range of conditions that ranged between -1 <= R <= 0.8 and 0.02 <= PH2 <= 103 MPa for pressure vessel steels.