Hydrogen Embrittlement: Identifying Cracks in Carbon Steel Piping

[bugoy_egoy]

how can a crack in a carbon steel piping be identified if it is caused by hydrogen embrittlement?

 

[nucleus]

”how can a crack in a carbon steel piping be identified if it is caused by hydrogen embrittlement? “

It’s not easy, in fact it is likely impossible unless you send the pipe to a metallurgical lab where they can look at the part through an electronic scanning microscope.

Hydrogen-embrittlement cracking is often confused with stress-corrosion cracking and vise versa. The following is from the book “Understanding How Components Fail” by Donald J. Wulpi:
It is difficult and sometimes impossible to distinguish with certainty between hydrogen-induced and stress-corrosion cracking that have occurred in service by exposure to hydrogen gas, hydrogen sulfide, and water and dilute aqueous solutions. Several basic characteristics to be observed in investigating failures of these types are (a) history of the metal part, (b) cracking origin, (c) crack pattern, (d) evidence of little or no corrosion on the fracture surfaces, and (e) microscopic features.

There is more, plus Metals Handbook Vol 10 covers the subject in great detail.