Adaptability of Typical Seamless Tube Steels to Hydrogen-blended Natural Gas Environments and Hydrogen- induced Damage Mechanism

doi:10.11902/1005.4537.2024.219

Journal of Chinese Society for Corrosion and protection

2025, Vol. 45

Issue (2): 397-406 DOI: 10.11902/1005.4537.2024.219

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Adaptability of Typical Seamless Tube Steels to Hydrogen-blended Natural Gas Environments and Hydrogen- induced Damage Mechanism

CHENG Kaiyuan¹, PENG Yang², HUANG Feng¹(

), CHENG Xianglong², XU Yunfeng¹, PENG Zhixian¹, LIU Jing¹

^1.Hubei Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Materials and Service Safety, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430081, China
^2.Hengsteel Valin Steel pipe Co., Ltd., Hengyang 421001, China

Cite this article:

CHENG Kaiyuan, PENG Yang, HUANG Feng, CHENG Xianglong, XU Yunfeng, PENG Zhixian, LIU Jing. Adaptability of Typical Seamless Tube Steels to Hydrogen-blended Natural Gas Environments and Hydrogen- induced Damage Mechanism. Journal of Chinese Society for Corrosion and protection, 2025, 45(2): 397-406.

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Abstract

Herein, the effect of the 10 MPa natural gas blended with 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 100% (volume fraction) hydrogen respectively on the hydrogen embrittlement (HE) susceptibility of typical home-made medium- and low-strength seamless tube steels L245、X42 and X52 by means of slow strain rate tensile test (SSRT), aiming in understanding the environmental adaptability of the relevant steel tubes. The results show that low-strength steels L245 and X42 maintain good ductility at low hydrogen-blending ratio (≤ 10%), showing minimal influence of hydrogen. However, at higher hydrogen-blending ratios (≥ 20%), the elongation at break decreases significantly, and the HE susceptibility rises. The HE susceptibility of medium strength steel X52 is relatively high at 5% hydrogen and increases linearly by higher hydrogen-blending rations. The fracture morphology aligns with SSRT results, where steels L245 and X42 exhibit good plasticity and toughness at lower hydrogen-blending ratio (≤ 10%), while X52 steel shows partial brittleness. HE is mainly driven by the hydrogen enhanced localized plasticity (HELP) mechanism, accompanied by hydrogen enhanced strain-induced vacancies (HESIV) mechanism. At high hydrogen-blending ratios (≥ 20%), the three steels all show brittle fracture characteristics, driven by a mechanism of mixed HELP and hydrogen enhanced decohesion (HEDE). Overall, a hydrogen-blending ratio below 10% is considered as a safe operating limit for these seamless steel pipes.

Key words: seamless tubular steel hydrogen mixing ratio hydrogen embrittlement sensitivity HEDE HELP

Received: 23 July 2024 32134.14.1005.4537.2024.219

TG174

Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(U21A20113);National Natural Science Foundation of China(52231003);Major Program (JD) of Hubei Province(2023BAA003)

Corresponding Authors: HUANG Feng, E-mail: huangfeng@wust.edu.cn

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	CHENG Kaiyuan
	PENG Yang
	HUANG Feng
	CHENG Xianglong
	XU Yunfeng
	PENG Zhixian
	LIU Jing

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https://www.jcscp.org/EN/10.11902/1005.4537.2024.219 OR https://www.jcscp.org/EN/Y2025/V45/I2/397

Table 1 Main chemical composition of experimental steel

Fig.1 Metallographic and tensile sample samplinglocation

Table 2 Mechanical properties of experimental steel

Fig.2 Schematic of tensile specimen dimensions

Fig.3 Metallographic and FE-SEM photos of three kinds of seamless steel tubes: (a, d) L245 steel, (b, e) X42 steel, (c, f) X52 steel

Fig.4 Stress-strain curves of L245 (a), X42 (b) and X52 (c) of seamless steel tubes under different hydrogen-blending ratios

Fig.5 Tensile strength of three kinds of seamless steel tubes under different hydrogen-blending ratios

Fig.6 Hydrogen embrittlement sensitivity of three kinds of seamless steel tubes under different hydrogen-blending ratios

Fig.7 Macro fracture morphology photos of L245 steel at pure natural gas (a), 5% (b), 10% (c), 15% (d), 20% (e) and 100% (f) hydrogen-blending ratios

Fig.8 Magnification of local characteristics of fracture of L245 steel at 5% (a), 10% (b), 15% (c) and 20% (d) hydrogen-blending ratios

Fig.9 Fracture topography of X42 steel at pure natural gas (a), 5% (b), 10% (c), 15% (d), 20% (e) and 100% (f) hydrogen-blending ratios

Fig.10 Local characteristics of X42 steel fracture at 5% (a), 10% (b), 15% (c) and 20% (d) hydrogen-blending ratios

Fig.11 Fracture topography of X52 steel at pure natural gas (a), 5% (b), 10% (c), 15% (d), 20% (e) and 100% (f) hydrogen-blending ratios

Fig.12 Local characteristics of X42 steel fracture at 5% (a), 10% (b), 15% (c) and 20% (d) hydrogen-blending ratios

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