Institute of Metals Division - The Influence of Hydrogen on the Tensile Properties of Columbium

The tensile properties of columbium and Cb-H alloys containing up to 455 ppm H were studied as a function of temperature and strain rate. Hydrogen, introduced into columbium at elevated temperatures, using a thermal -equilibrium technique, embrittled columbium most severely at about —77°C. This elnbrittle ment occurred even at hydrogen concentrations of an order of 20 ppm. At higher temperatures, the hydrogen tolerance of columbium increased in relation to the increased solubility of hydrogen in tile metal. Below this temperature hydrogen tolerance, as determined by ductility and fracture stress, increased slightly. Strain rate had little effect on the tensile results for cross-head speeds over the range 0.002 to 2.0 in. per min. Strain aging during the tensile test appears to explain the ductility mininmum at —77°C. The apparent increase in hydrogen tolerance at lower temperatures is attributed to the low mobility of hyhogen. Experiments were performed in which samples were prestrained in tension at room temperature and tested to failure at —196°C. Results suggest that hydrogetz segregation to preformed crack nuclei can cause subsequent embrittlement even at temperatures where hydrogen mobility is too low to cause embrittlement in a normal tensile test. COLUMBIUM is an example of the class of bcc metals with ductile-brittle transition temperatures sensitive to the presence of interstitial atom contaminants. Hydrogen is one of these embrittling contaminants. The embrittling effect of hydrogen is less potent, perhaps, in columbium than in some of the other bcc refractory metals, but it is still a problem of both theoretical and practical interest. Unlike hydrogen in iron and steels, hydrogen in columbium is exothermically rather than endo-thermically occluded. The embrittlement process in exothermic systems has not been studied as extensively as that in endothermic systems, especially at hydrogen concentrations below the limit of solubility. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the embrittlement process in initially pure columbium as a function of hydrogen content, temperature, and strain rate. The Cb-H phase diagram, according to Albrecht et al.,1 is shown in Fig. 1. Columbium reacts exothermically with hydrogen producing a solid solution at concentrations of less than about 250 ppm (parts per million by weight) H at room temperature. At concentrations above the highly temperature-dependent solvus a second phase is formed. Like many similar hydrogen-metal systems,2 his system exhibits a miscibility gap with respect to hydrogen solution. Albrecht found the critical temperature of the miscibility gap to be about 140°C, the critical concentration to be 0.23 atom fraction hydrogen, and the critical pressure to be 0.01 mm Hg. Above 140°C there is a solid solution of increasing lattice constant extending across the phase diagram. Hydrogen concentrations of particular interest in this investigation were those below the limit of solubility in columbium. At hydrogen concentrations above the limit of solubility, columbium will contain the hydrogen-rich second phase and will be brittle under most testing conditions because the hydride generally precipitates as platelets with coincident matrix lattice strains.1'3 At hydrogen concentrations below the limit of solubility, the tensile behavior of columbium is expected to be more sensitive to the interrelationships between hydrogen concentration and mobility and the testing variables such as temperature and strain rate. Literature references to the hydrogen embrittlement of metals, especially ferrous alloys and titanium alloys, are too voluminous to mention. It is only recently, however, that detailed studies of the hydrogen embrittlement of columbium have been undertaken. Wilcox et a1.4 studied the strain rate and temperature dependences of the low-temperature deformation behavior of fine-grained are-melted columbium (1 ppm H) and the effect of hydrogen content (1,9, and 30 ppm H) on the mechanical behavior of columbium at a series of temperatures for a single strain rate. A strain-aging peak was ob-served at about -50°C which was attributed to the presence of hydrogen in the metal. Eustice and carlson5 studied the effect of hydrogen on the ductility of V-Cb alloys at a series of temperatures over the range -196° to 25°C. Pure columbium was embrittled by 20 ppm H which produced a ductility transition at approximately -70°C. Ingram et al.6 studied the effect of oxygen and hydrogen on the tensile properties of columbium and tantalum. A minimum in the notched-to-unnotched tensile ratio of hydrogenated columbium was obtained at about -75°C, but because of the relatively large hydrogen content employed (200 and 390 ppm) the ductility