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EC
29,6
596
Received 14 January 2011
Revised 10 August 2011
Accepted 17 November 2011
Engineering Computations:
International Journal for
Computer-Aided Engineering and
Software
Vol. 29 No. 6, 2012
pp. 596-604
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0264-4401
DOI 10.1108/02644401211246300
Application of elastic fracture and
damage mechanics models for
numerical simulation of hydrogen
embrittlement in steels
Jorge Palma Carrasco
Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande-PB, Brazil
Jose Maria Andrade Barbosa
Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife-PE, Brazil
Antonio Almeida Silva
Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande-PB, Brazil, and
Marcos Antonio da Silva Irmao
Federal University of Vale do Sao Francisco, Petrolina-PE, Brazil
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a numerical simulation of the hydrogen atomic
effect on the steels fracture toughness, as well as on crack propagation using fracture mechanics and
continuous damage mechanics models.
Design/methodology/approach The simulation was performed in an idealized elastic specimen
with an edge crack loaded in the tensile opening mode, in a plane strain state. In order to simulate the
effect of hydrogen in the steel, the stress intensity factor ahead of the crack tip in the hydrogenated
material was obtained. The damage model was applied to simulate the growth and crack propagation
being considered only two damage components: a mechanical damage produced by a static load and a
non-mechanical damage produced by the hydrogen.
Findings The simulation results showed that the changes in the stress field at the crack tip and the
reduction in the time of growth and crack propagation due to hydrogen effect occur. These results
showed a good correlation and consistency with macroscopic observations, providing a better
understanding of the hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon in steels.
Originality/value The paper attempts to link the concepts of the continuous damage and fracture
mechanics to achieve a better approach in the representation of the physical phenomenon studied, in
order to obtain a more accurate simulation of the processes involved.
Keywords Steels, Fracture, Embrittlement, Damage continuum mechanics, Fracture mechanics,
Hydrogen embrittlement, Structural steels, Finite element method
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The hydrogen embrittlement is a degradation process that influences significantly on
the intensification of subcritical crack growth, and in the resistance decrease to the
fracture of these materials. Almost inevitably it derives in unexpected catastrophic
failures, both in new and old structures with long time in service. The effects of
hydrogen in steels vary depending on the nature of the stress applied to the structure.
Under static loads, its more significant effects are: the decrease in the microcracking
initiation time; the intensification of the subcritical crack growth; the reduction in the Simulation
fracture toughness and threshold stress intensity factor for the hydrogen assisted of hydrogen
cracking (Yongwon and Gangloff, 2007). Additionally, the hydrogen embrittlement
develops various sub-processes at the microstructure different levels, which are closely embrittlement
associated with the presence of hydrogen in the material and that can be qualified as
microdamage processes (Bolotin and Shipkov, 2001).
The fracture mechanics is a useful tool to obtain the fracture parameters and 597
evaluate the propagation of a macroscopic crack. It can be applied once the crack was
initiated, but it does not describe the evolution of the material mechanical properties
while the microdamage processes develop ahead of the crack tip. It is precisely in this
scale that the hydrogen acts. The damage mechanics is a viable alternative for
assessing the integrity of structures that develop microcracking processes attributed to
environmental effects. After the introduction of the first model proposed by Kachanov
in 1958, an impressive research activity was directed towards the development of
feasible models that can describe the damage in materials as steel, in order to solve a
wide range of problems connected with the degradation of the materials properties,
such as environmental factors.
This paper aims to simulate numerically the atomic hydrogen effect on the fracture
toughness and crack propagation in steels, through the use of fracture and damage
mechanics models. It attempts to link the concepts of the continuous damage and fracture
mechanics to achieve a better approach to the representation of the physical phenomenon
studied, in order to obtain a more accurate simulation of the processes involved.

Hydrogen distribution model in the lattice and its effect on the material
deformation
The model is based on the Orianis equilibrium theory. It is assumed that the hydrogen
diffuses through the normal interstitial lattice sites (NILS) due to the hydrostatic stress,
and that the trapping sites are filled from NILS. It was proposed by Lufrano and
Sofronis (1998), who included the dilatation effect induced by the hydrogen into the
material constitutive laws, being modified later by Krom et al. (1999).

Hydrogen concentration in the lattice

To calculate the hydrogen concentration in the material, its concentration is analyzed in
the NILS assuming that it is in equilibrium with the local hydrostatic stress. Since the
hydrogen is absorbed by the material, it starts to reside in the NILS in an homogeneous
distribution through it; thus, a continuous description for the solid solution can be
formulated. The Fermi-Dirac formula is used to calculate the hydrogen equilibrium
concentration:


uL u0L skk V H
exp : 1
1 2 uL 1 2 u0L 3RT

The term in brackets means the equilibrium constant dominated by the hydrostatic
stress, skk. R is the universal constant of gases, VH the hydrogen partial molar volume in
the steel and T the absolute temperature. u0L is the initial NILS occupancy of a non-loaded
structure with a initial lattice concentration, c0 is the equilibrium occupancy of NILS,
related with a lattice concentration, cL, given by:
EC cL buL : 2
29,6 where b is the number of available NILS per metallic atom.

Constitutive law
The lattice distortion caused by the hydrogen is a dilatational deformation, expressed by:
598 1 H
1H
ij e dij : 3
3
dij is the Kronecker delta, e H is the structure local dilation caused by the hydrogen,
given as:
Dv
e H cL : 4
V
where V is the mean host metal atomic volume. Dv is the volume change per atom of
hydrogen inserted in the solution.
The effect of hydrogen concentration on the elastic moduli of diverse metals and
metallic alloys, included steel (Ortiz and Ovejero-Garcia, 1992), was remarked in some
researches (Sofronis and Birnbaum, 1995; Lunarska et al., 1976). Since the matrix of the
material used in the present analysis is iron, we can apply the relation proposed in
Lunarska et al. (1976), which can be uttered as:

m H m1 2 0:08cL : 5

m H is the hydrogenated material shear modulus and m is the hydrogen-free material

shear modulus. The Youngs modulus of the hydrogenated material E H can be found
from equation (5).

Growth and crack propagation model in hydrogenated environment

In this model, proposed by Bolotin and Shipkov (2001), the crack propagation is
considered the result of the interactions between the crack body stability conditions as
a mechanical system, and the damage accumulation process. The model includes the
kinetic equations for the evolution of each damage type, the equation of the damage
effects on the resistance forces, and the equation of the crack tip evolution.
Additionally, it considers a crack propagation theory (Bolotin and Shipkov, 2001) and a
mass transport model.

Cracked body mechanics

From the viewpoint of mechanics of deformable solids, crack initiation and growth are a
result of the interaction of two mechanisms: damage accumulation near the crack tip and
the general balance of forces and energy in the system cracked body-loading-environment.
Therefore, the crack behavior depends on the relationship between the generalized driving
force, G, and the generalized resistance force, G; in addition, the generalized resistance
force depends on the damage accumulated at the crack tip zone. G can be associated with
the energy release rate in linear fracture mechanics, and G with the critical magnitudes of
this rate. In terms of these forces, the crack does not grow while the condition G , G be
respected. The crack growth will begin and propagates stably until the next arrest or until
the fail when G G. In the case of G . G, the system is unstable, and the crack to Simulation
propagates until the fracture of the component (Bolotin and Shipkov, 2001). of hydrogen
These conditions are valid to model the crack growth and of the final fracture for a
mechanical loading including the effect of an environmental phenomenon, as the embrittlement
hydrogen embrittlement.

Hydrogen assisted damage 599

In this model, the damage caused by a static loading is differentiated from the damage
due to other mechanical loadings. The damage caused by the hydrogen diffusion is also
differentiated from the damage produced by corrosion. At the crack tip, the hydrogen
damage evolution, ch, and the static damage evolution, cs, are given by:


d ch c 1 h ct
exp 2 : 6
dt ch ch


d cs 1 s 2 sth ms
: 7
dt tc ss
c1h is the damage at the crack tip in a saturation state; ct is the concentration at the crack
tip, and ch is the stationary hydrogen concentration, reached by a stationary crack. s is
the average value of the tensile stress in the considered material point. ss is the
resistance to the static loading damage and sth is a resistance threshold parameter. tc is a
time constant and ms is an exponent with closed value.
The evolution of the crack tip curvature radius is outlined by:
dr rs 2 r da dcs ch
rb 2 r : 8
dt la dt dt
where the first term on the right side describes the tip sharpening up to the magnitude
rs. The second term expresses the tip blunting up to the magnitude rb; la is a
parameter with length dimension.
The last model equation relates the generalized force of resistance, G, with the
damage measures ahead the crack tip. For a crack in a plane strain state, it is given by:
G G0 1 2 xcs ch a
: 9
where G0 is the fracture specific work for a non-damaged body, x characterizes the
residual fracture toughness for the damaged material and a is a material parameter.

Environmental agent transport through cracks

The environmental agent concentration in the crack tip neighborhood is characterized
by a scalar variable that depends on a physical time. When the agents transport
happens steadily, it can be used the formula almost-stationary models:
dct ch 2 ct cb 2 ct da
: 10
dt tD lD dt
where lD is the diffusion zone length and tD the characteristic time of the diffusion.
The parameter cb is a characteristic concentration for the crack fast growth.
EC Numerical formulation
The propagation of an edge crack was evaluated in an idealized isotropic elastic-linear
29,6 specimen, loaded in the tensile opening mode, in a plane strain state and under the
hydrogen effect. The numerical solution was divided into two parts:
(1) the stress intensity factor calculation that was used in obtaining of the
generalized propagation force G; and
600 (2) the ordinary differential equations integration, that describe the problem of
damage at the crack tip, and the crack propagation.
The stress intensity factor ahead the crack tip in the hydrogenated material was
calculated using the model proposed in Lufrano and Sofronis (1998) and Krom et al.
(1999), without considering the hydrogen trapping. The growth and crack propagation
were simulated by means of the damage model, taking into account the crack
propagation theory described previously (Bolotin and Shipkov, 2001). Only two damage
types were considered: a mechanical damage due to the static load, and a
non-mechanical damage through the hydrogen.

Stress intensity factor calculation

The finite elements method was used to solve the problem of the stress intensity factor
calculation in the hydrogenated material defined in the previous section. Making {U}
denotes the set of nodal displacements, [N ] the standard matrices of interpolation for
the displacements, [B ] for the strains and [E ] for the constitutive properties, the
equilibrium equation is:
K
{U } {re }: 11
where {re} represents the vector of external applied forces and the internal forces
generated by the introduction of hydrogen into the lattice. The equation (11) in the
extended form
Z becomes: Z Z
B
T E
B
dA{U } N
T {P}dS B
T E
{1 H }dA: 12
A S A
The Youngs modulus of the hydrogenated material varies pointwise according to the
corresponding local hydrogen equilibrium concentration. The mechanical effect of
hydrogen is modeled by a dilatational transformation strain whose component varies
pointwise too, and its magnitude depends upon the local hydrogen concentration. The
finite element mesh was composed of 796 nodes and 263 eight-nodded quadrangular
isoparametric elements. The rosette at the crack tip was built with 12 eight-nodded
quadratic quarter-point elements with nodes to 308.

Simulation of growth and crack propagation

To evaluate the crack propagation problem, the first-order differential equations system
formed by the evolution equations of damage, hydrogen transport, crack tip radius and
generalized resistance forces was solved using the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. The
concentration at the crack mouth, ce, is constant and the static mechanical loading is given
by the applied stress. The stress intensity factor, KI, was calculated by a conventional
procedure, thus, the generalized propagation force GI can be worked out considering their
relationship with KI through the well known energy release rate formula:
 K 2I Simulation
GI 1 2 y 2 : 13
E of hydrogen
embrittlement
where y is the Poissons modulus and E is the Youngs modulus.

Results and discussion 601

For the evaluation of the models applicability, a cracked rectangular specimen of
MARAGING T-250 high strength steel was idealized, which dimensions are:
length 120 mm, width 80 mm and thickness 20 mm. The edge cracks dimensions
are: length, a 8 mm and tip radius, r 50 mm. The steel physical and mechanical
properties, obtained from ALLVAC (2000), are shown in Table I.
The material parameters, obtained from Bolotin and Shipkov (2001), Taha and
Sofronis (2001) and Hirth (1980), are shown in Table II.
The simulations to calculate the stress intensity factor were performed in the
free-hydrogen material, and with diverse hydrogen concentrations. The magnitude of
normal stresses applied, sa, was 80, 100, 120 and 200 MPa at a temperature of 3008K.
Some of these results are shown in Table III, and demonstrate that the stress intensity
factor values in the hydrogenated material are different from those obtained for the
hydrogen-free material. The existence of a proportionality relationship between the
stress intensity factor and the Youngs modulus allow us to explain this difference. This
situation, under the hypotheses assumed in this work, proves that the existence of a
material saturated of hydrogen zone affects the stress field at the crack tip, and in turn,
the fracture toughness of the material.
The results obtained from the damage model application are shown in the next
graphs: Figure 1(a) shows the crack growth curves plotted for different applied loads
and the same hydrogen concentration, which influences the crack evolution. It is
observed that the initial evolution is very slow and that, only after a certain elapsed time,
the crack presents a quicker growth caused by the driving forces increase and the
resistance forces decrease. The highest point in the curves coincides with the crack
critical dimension, representing the fracture of the component due to the generated
instability when the resistance forces to the propagation are overcome. The curves in
Figure 1(b) plotted for the same applied load and different hydrogen concentration show
a decrease in the time of the crack propagation beginning and the final fracture caused
by the concentration increase.
In Figure 2(a) the curves of stress intensity factor evolution in the time are shown.
The crack growth generates a stress intensity factor also increased until it reaches the
material fracture toughness magnitude, KIC, and the failure occurs. That behavior is
consistent with the curves originated in experimental results, obtained in the scientific
literature (Hertzberg, 1996) and shown in Figure 2(b).

p
sUTS (Pa) sY (Pa) E (Pa) m (Pa) y (ad.) KIC (Pa m)
Table I.
1.79 109 1.76 109 1.86 1011 7.16 1010 0.30 9.81 107 Physical and mechanical
properties of
Source: ALLVAC (2000) MARAGING T-250 steel
 EC
29,6

602

Table II.
Material parameters
a ch cb tD tc ss sth rs rb lD la c1
h x ms V VH b
(ad.) (ad.) (ad.) (s) (s) (Pa) (Pa) (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (ad.) (ad.) (ad.) (m3) (m3/mol) (ad.)

1.0 1.0 0.5 1 102 1 103 5 109 25 107 10.0 1 102 10.0 1 102 0.5 1.0 4.0 1.2 102 29 2 102 6 6.0
Source: Bolotin and Shipkov (2001), Taha and Sofronis (2001) and Hirth (1980)
 Simulation
KI KI
sa c0 cL EH p
(with H) (withoutpH)
of hydrogen
(MPa) (H at/Fe at) (H at/Fe at) (MPa) (MPa m) (MPa m) embrittlement
80.0 1 102 4 1.40947 102 4 1.8600 105 15.0120 15.011
1 102 3 1.40895 102 3 1.8598 105 15.0180
1 102 2 1.40378 102 2 1.8579 105 15.0810 603
100.0 1 102 4 1.53574 102 4 1.8600 105 18.7650 18.764
1 102 3 1.40895 102 3 1.8598 105 18.7710
1 102 2 1.40378 102 2 1.8577 105 18.8340
120.0 1 102 4 1.67333 102 4 1.8600 105 22.5170 22.517 Table III.
1 102 3 1.67231 102 3 1.8598 105 22.5230 KI for different loads and
1 102 2 1.66225 102 2 1.8575 105 22.5810 hydrogen concentrations

60 60
32 1
200 MPa
1 : Ce/Ch = 0.25
50 50 2 : Ce/Ch = 0.50
3 : Ce/Ch = 1.00
40 40
CRACK (mm)
CRACK (mm)

250 MPa

30 30
300 MPa
20 350 MPa 20
400 MPa
450 MPa
10 10

0 0 0
10 1C1 102 103 104 103 104
Time (s) Time (s)
(a) (b)
Notes: (a) for different applied loads and Ce/Ch = 1; (b) for the applied stress sa = 200MPa and Figure 1.
Crack growth evolution
different concentrations

Time (min)
x 107 1 2 3 4 5 10 100 1,000 10,000
11
10 100
KIC 100
x x x x
9 x x Kic
x
KJ (MPa m)

450 MPa 75
KI (Pam)

8 75
Ksi in.

400 MPa
7 350 MPa 50
6 300 MPa
50
5 250 MPa
25
25 No
Figure 2.
4 200 MPa KIEAC
break (a) KI evolution for
3 0 different applied loads
10 101 102 103 104
plotted from simulation
Time (s)
and (b) KI evolution curves
(a) (b)
obtained in experimental
Source: Hertzberg (1996) procedures
EC Conclusions
The simulations showed that the beginning and cracks growth time decrease when the
29,6 structure is under the hydrogen effect, to the time when it is only under the effect of
mechanical action. It is believed that the decrease in time derives from the intensification
of the stress field ahead of the crack tip due to the hydrogen effect on the material elastic
moduli. This situation is the result of the material degradation originated from the
604 combined action of mechanical loading and the action of hydrogen, which is consistent
with the hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon macroscopic observations.
The results showed a good consistency according to the phenomenon observations,
well described in the scientific literature, and allowed to infer the modeling validation
for the conditions and hypotheses outlined in the problem.

References
ALLVAC (2000), Technical Data Sheet Vascomax Nickel Maraging Alloys, available at: www.
allvac.com (accessed 20 March 2007).
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corrosion cracking, International Journal of Solids and Structures, Vol. 38, pp. 7297-318.
Hertzberg, R.W. (1996), Deformation and Fracture Mechanics of Engineering Materials, Wiley,
New York, NY.
Hirth, J.P. (1980), Effects of hydrogen on the properties of iron and steel, Metall. Trans.,
Vol. 11A, pp. 861-90.
Krom, A.H.M., Koers, R.W.J. and Bakker, A. (1999), Hydrogen transport near a blunting crack
tip, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, Vol. 47, pp. 971-2.
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Corresponding author
Jose Maria Andrade Barbosa can be contacted at: jmab@ufpe.br

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