Abstract
Alloying austenitic stainless steels with nitrogen up to a concentration of 1 wt-% improves yield strength, tensile strength, and ductility. Further increase in the nitrogen concentration results in chromium nitride precipitation at the grain boundaries and a decrease in the ductility with a change in the fracture mode from ductile to intergranular. Hydrogen charging causes high reversible dilatation in the lattice and remarkable reduction in the ductility. The ductility losses caused by hydrogen are more pronounced at higher nitrogen concentrations and a change of the fracture mode from intergranular to transgranular is observed in steels with more than 1 wt-% nitrogen. Chromium nitride precipitates are shown to have an insignificant role in the hydrogen embrittlement. Hydrogen charging steels with nitrogen concentrations of below 1 wt-% enhances the strengthening effect of nitrogen but, at higher nitrogen concentrations, hydrogen is shown to be detrimental to the strength.
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