Preventing hydrogen embrittlement in stainless steel by means of compressive stress induced by cavitation peening
In this paper, it has been demonstrated that compressive residual stress induced by cavitation peening which is one of the mechanical surface modification techniques can reduce invasion of the surface of austenitic stainless steel by hydrogen. Cavitation peening was done with employing a cavitating jet in air. The specimens were prepared with different processing time of cavitation peening. Then, stress measurement was performed using an X-ray diffraction analysis. After that, the surface was charged with hydrogen employing a cathodic charging method. Hydrogen content was evaluated by a thermal desorption analysis using a gas chromatography. From the obtained results, hydrogen content was reduced along with increase in compressive residual stress at surface. In particular hydrogen content became to 15% at processing time of 2 s/mm introducing compressive residual stress of 378 MPa. In short, cavitation peening can drastically prevent invasion by hydrogen.
