The influence of hydrostatic stress states on the hydrogen solubility in martensitic steels

A specific dependency of elastic tensile stress on the hydrogen solubility is identified for martensitic steels. The lattice hydrogen concentration under applied stress may be underestimated when predicted by a classical law which associates hydrostatic stress with the partial molar volume of hydrogen. We have explored the impact of elastic distortions on hydrogen solubility from two different sources: internal stresses arising from heterogeneous microstructures and elastic fields around vacancy clusters. Only the latter seems to be in reasonable agreement with our results.