Fatigue Properties of Type 304 Stainless Steel in High Pressure Hydrogen at Room Temperature

The fatigue properties of the soluted and the sensitized type 304 stainless steel were investigated in high pressure hydrogen up to 4.0 MPa at room temperature. It is found that both the number of cycles to failure and the fatigue limits of the soluted and the sensitized steel decreased with increasing hydrogen pressure. Typical fatigue fracture modes were observed on a main fatigue crack growth area of the fracture surface, that is, the striations in argon and the transgranular fracture in hydrogen, respectively. It is concluded that the fatigue crack growth is promoted by hydrogen along the boundary surface between the martensite and the austenite.