hydrogen imbrittlemen
 

hydrogen imbrittlement
hi,
the problem is with a multi-storey car park with precast decks on steel lattice girder trusses. the trusses have suffered various amounts of corrosion to the top and bottom cords and the web members including around the welds. a colleague has mentioned hydrogen imbrittlement that can affect high strength steels as used as tendons in pre and post tension structures. i'm aware that sudden failures can result from the imbrittlement, but is there any evidence of this occurring with normal structure steels that are very heavily loaded.
thanks
hannis
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hannis,
my understanding of hydrogen embrittlement is that the hydrogen has a dendancy to migrate to areas of high stress. so if you had a notch in the beam, it would tend to congrgate there, and would likely be the first location of failure.
hannis:
check out this previously, brief thread on the subject.