A review of hydrogen embrittlement of martensitic advanced high-strength steels

The martensitic advanced high-strength steels (MS-AHSS) are used to create fuel-efficient, crashworthy cars. Hydrogen embrittlement (HE) is an issue with high-strength steels; thus, the interaction of hydrogen with MS-AHSS needs to be studied. There are only a few published works on the HE of MS-AHSS. The current literature indicates that the HE susceptibility of MS-AHSS is affected by (i) the strength of the steel, (ii) the applied strain rate, (iii) the concentration of hydrogen, (iv) microstructure, (v) tempering, (vi) residual stress, (vii) fabrication route, (viii) inclusions, (ix) metallic coatings, and (x) specific precipitates. Some of the unresolved issues include (i) the correlation of laboratory results to service performance, (ii) establishing the conditions or factors that lead to a certain HE response, (iii) studying the effect of stress rate on HE, and (iv) a comprehensive understanding of hydrogen trapping in MS-AHSS.