Hydrogen cracking in metastable austenitic stainless steels

An illustration of cracking associated with the hydrogen embrittlement of austenitic stainless steel that is pulled in tension. It is clear that in both cases, cracking occurs at many locations other than at the artificial notch (stress concentration) at the centre. This is because of thermal-induced, deformation-induced martensite and deformation bands. Koyama M, Ogawa T, Yan D, Matsumoto Y, Tasan CC, Takai K, Tsuzaki K. Hydrogen desorption and cracking associated with martensitic transformation in Fe-Cr