NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF THE HYDROGEN EFFECT ON THE DEFORMATIONS OF TEST BODY MODELS LOADED UNDER TENSILE STRESS

Jorge Palma Carrasco

Universidade Federal de Campina Grande Curso de P s-Graduacao em Ci ncia e Engenharia de Materiais o e Campina Grande, PB, Brasil. Email: jorge palma c@yahoo.com.br

Neilor Cesar dos Santos

Centro Federal de Educacao Tecnol gica da Paraba o Jo o Pessoa, PB, Brasil a Email: neilor@cefetpb.edu.br

Antonio Almeida Silva

Universidade Federal de Campina Grande Centro de Ci nciais e Tecnologia e Unidade Acad mica de Engenharia Mec nica e a Av: Aprigo Veloso, 82, Bodocong o Campina Grande PB, Brasil CEP 58109.970 Email: almeida@dem.ufcg.edu.br
Abstract Experimental observations and theoretical calculations have showed that the hydrogen atoms in solid solution in metals and alloys cause changes in the materials constitutive properties and increase the dislocations mobility, prompting on one hand, changes in the elastic moduli and, on the other, localized processes of high plasticity that may lead to structure breakage. Using the nite element method, this paper investigated the concentration effect of the atomic hydrogen in the elastic deformations of high strength steel specimens models submitted to tensile loads. Also, simulations for different geometrical congurations of the models were achieved in order to evaluate the hydrogen quantity inuence in the stress concentration factors of models subject to tensile static loads. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the hydrogen concentration effect on the material behavior as well as to verify how the variations induced into microstructural scale might prompt changes in the material behavior into macroscopic scale. After the simulations, it was possible to verify that the hydrogen effects are less relevant as concentrations are low, and that they grow in importance as they rise, and that the most important deformation level occurs due to the hydrogen presence in the material lattice. On the other hand, it was observed that the stress concentrating factors have not been affected by the hydrogen.

Key words: Hydrogen embrittlement, High strength steel, Finite element method, Stress concentration factor. cL c0 eH E EH G GH KL Kt l t T VH VM w H ij NOMENCLATURE Equilibrium concentration in the NILS . Initial concentration in the NILS . Local dilatation in the structure caused by the hydrogen. Youngs modulus. Youngs modulus of the hydrogenated material. Shear modulus. Shear modulus of the hydrogenated material. Equilibrium constant. Stress concentration factor. Model length. Model thickness. Absolute temperature. Volume element. Hydrogen partial molar volume. Iron molar volume. Model width. Number of available NILS per solvent atom. Deformation of the lattice caused by hydrogen.

kk max n v L [K] [B] [E] [N ] {U } {re } {P } {}

Normal stresses. Maximum stress. Nominal stress. Yield stress. Occupancy of the available NILS . Mean atomic volume of the host atom. Poissons ratio. Stiffness matrix Displacement-deformation matrix Constitutive moduli matrix Shape function matrix Nodal displacement vector Applied forces vector External forces vector Deformations caused by hydrogen vector

I. INTRODUCTION The hydrogen embrittlement is dened as some kind of damage caused by loss of material strength and ductility due to the presence of hydrogen in atomic form in its lattice under residual or applied stresses. It may be caused by premature fails in various situations due to the fact that certain tolerable levels, its accumulation in the lattice sites weakens metallic alloys and reduces the material deformation capacity. The hydrogen degrades metals and alloys, especially iron and steel, tending to provoke a structure breakage in low levels of load when compared with those resisted by hydrogen-free materials. Generally the result is a brittle and catastrophic fracture that occurs unexpectedly in some materials after a long time of use. This is one of the main causes of failures in oil and gas industry. Despite extensive studies, mechanisms of hydrogen embrittlement still need clarication. Some models have been developed, but they have not been able to explain all the phenomena observed in the embrittlement process, neither have them included the role of all factors [1]. Some difculty is associated with the lack of unication in the terminology used causing understanding problems of the issue. Often, the term stress corrosion is used without any evidence of electrochemical dissolution in the process. Given the fact that hydrogen is a smallest and lightest atom, it can be diffused more easily into metals than other elements, and this can explain its high jump frequency: at 300 K an iron atom changes its position once every 100 years, a carbon atom changes its position every 100 s, while a hydrogen atom jumps to 1012 s1 rate (Shewmon, P.,) apud [2]. Its high diffusivity and low solubility in steel makes it difcult to conduct experiments and interpret results, being this one of the reasons for the importance of guring out its behavior in a micro-structural level to comprehend the hydrogen embrittlement in these materials. Sofronis and McMeeking (1989) apud [3] using a diffusion model based on Orianis equilibrium theory (1970) apud [3], represented for displacement due to hydrostatic stress and for trapping caused by plastic deformation, analyzed the transient hydrogen diffusion in iron and steel and its trapping in the area near a blunting crack tip. In this model, it is assumed that the hydrogen diffuses through the normal interstitial lattice sites - NILS and the trapping sites generated by plastic deformation are lled by interstitial diffuseness. This model has been extended by Luffrano and Sofronis [4] to analyze the high and low strength steels behavior including the dilatation effect induced into the material constitutive laws by the hydrogen. It was then modied by Krom [2] who introduced a strain rate factor in the diffusion equation to accurately explain the hydrogen balance in the NILS and in the trapping sites. The model was used by Krom et al. [5] to investigate the strain rate effect of the on the hydrogen distribution into steel and its effect on the material behavior. Calculations about the hydrogen concentrations in NILS in equilibrium with the local hydrostatic stress along with the concentrations in the trapping sites were achieved by Sofronis et al. [6] and Lyang et al. [7] who used the diffusion models basic and equilibrium equations to analyze the hydrogen effect in the beginning of the plastic instability in metals and alloys. Calculations of the populations in the NILS in equilibrium with the local hydrostatic stress in the trapping absence were achieved by Lufrano and Sofronis [8] who also investigated the effects of the volume changes and those of elastic moduli caused by hydrogen near a blunting crack tip of a solid solution. This study aims to analyze the hydrogen concentration effect in the material behavior in a high strength steel model submitted to tensile loads in a elastic deformations regimen using the basic and equilibrium equations of Lufrano and Sofroniss [4] as well as Kroms [2] models, without considering the trapping in the micro structural defects. II. CONSTITUTIVE RELATIONS A. Changes in the volume and the elastic moduli in the host metal The interaction between the hydrogen and the applied stress eld arises from changes in the volume and in the local elastic moduli (Peisl, 1978, Mazzolai and Birnbaum, 1985a, 1985b) apud [8] caused by the introduction of solute hydrogen atoms

into the lattice. Using the linear elasticity theory and the nite element method, Sofronis and Birnbaum [9] calculated the hydrogen effect on the interaction energy between two wedge dislocations with the same Burgers vector and between one wedge dislocation with solute atoms. Taking into account the formation of hydrogen atmosphere around the dislocations two elastic interactions were considered: a rst order interaction associated with the volume change caused by the introduction of hydrogen atom into the stress eld of a defect, and a second-order interaction resulting from the change in the local elastic moduli caused by the hydrogen. The rst order interaction energy may be expressed for: 1 1 Wint = kk (1) 3 is the volume change in the host metal lattice which is closely related to the hydrogen partial molar volume in solid solution VH = NA , where NA is the Avogadros number. kk are the normal stresses. The distortion in the lattice caused by hydrogen is a purely dilatational deformation given as: H = ij 1 H e ij 3 (2)

ij is the Kronecker delta, eH is the structure local dilation caused by the hydrogen, given as [9]: is the mean atomic volume of the host metal and cL is the hydrogen concentration in the NILS. The second order interaction energy may be expressed for: eH = cL
2 Wint =

(3)

1 (C Cijkl )ij a s kl 2 ijkl

(4)

Cijkl and Cijkl are the elastic constants with or without hydrogen. ij are the deformations caused in the volume element after the introduction of hydrogen and a the deformations caused by external stresses in hydrogen absence. kl Sofronis and Birnbaum [9] calculated the changes in the niobium elastic moduli as function of hydrogen concentration by using experimental results obtained from the calculus of the niobium elastic constants achieved by Mazzolai and Birnbaum (1985a, 1985b) apud [9]. To determine the effects of the hydrogen relaxation in the vanadium, Ko et al. [10] calculated their elastic constants detecting changes in their absolute values and decrease in the Bulk and Youngs modulus as a function of the hydrogen concentration. Using an inverted torsion pendulum to analyze the hydrogen effect on high purity -iron, Lunarska et al. [11] observed decreases in its shear modulus and found some kind of relation between the reduction mentioned and the hydrogen concentration. Ortiz and Ovejero-Garcia [12] working with steel, found variations in Youngs modulus that were correlated with the presence of hydrogen in the lattice and set a relation between the variation in this modulus and the steel susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement. Tiwari et al. [13], studying the internal hydrogen embrittlement phenomenon in steel and using a new method of concentration, detected important increments in tangential modulus of two types of steel. These modulus, described as the inclination of the linear portion in the stress-strain curve (gure 1), depend on Youngs modulus. Recently, Nibur et al.[14], using nanoindentation to study the hydrogen effects on the dislocations motion and nucleation during the plastic deformation of a austenitic stainless steel, has observed decreases of approximately 20% in the elastic modulus due to the presence of hydrogen. According to the data above, the result is that one of the effects of the interaction of hydrogen atoms with the material, which is the change in the elastic moduli, also affect the steel. Since the matrix of the material used in the present analysis is ferritic, we use the relation proposed by [11] which can be expressed as: GH = G(1 0.08cL ) (5)

where GH is the shear modulus of the hydrogenated material and G is the shear modulus of hydrogen-free material. The Youngs modulus of the hydrogenated material E H can be found in its relation with GH . B. Hydrogen concentration in the lattice For the calculations of the hydrogen concentration in the material, the hydrogen concentrations in the NILS are analyzed, assuming that they are in equilibrium with the local hydrostatic stress. Since the hydrogen is adsorbed and absorbed by the material, it starts to reside in the NILS in a continuous distribution through it; thus, a continuous description for the solid solution can be formulated [8]. The Fermi-Dirac formula (Hirth and Carnahan,1978) apud [6, 7, 8] is used to calculate the

Fig. 1. Plotted stress-strain curves for mild steel. The inclination change is presented in the linear curve portion for different hydrogen concentrations. Adapted from[13].

equilibrium concentration related to the local hydrostatic stress and the initial concentration in the solid free of any stress effect:
0 L L = 0 exp KL 1 L 1 L

(6)

0 L is the initial occupancy of the NILS of an unstressed structure to an initial concentration c0 . L shows the occupancy of the available interstitial sites and it is related to cL as:

cL = L

(7)

where is the number of available interstitial sites per metallic atom; KL is the equilibrium constant dominated by the rst order elastic interaction energy as in: KL = Wint kT = kk VH 3RT (8)

where k is Boltzmanns constant, R is the universal constant of gases, and T the absolute temperature. As the second order interaction energy decreases in a 1/r2 magnitude from the defect distance, compared with the decrease in the 1/r magnitude of rst order interaction, its effect on the total interaction energy is rather small and will not be considered [9]. In iron with bcc and fcc systems, the hydrogen may occupy both the tetrahedral interstitial sites and the octahedral sites [1]. In -iron at room temperature, the tetrahedral sites are occupied by the hydrogen rather than the octahedral sites (Hirth, 1980; Kiuchi and McLellan, 1983) apud [5]. The bcc systems have twelve tetrahedral sites and two atoms in their lattice, therefore = 6. III. STRESS CONCENTRATION FACTOR The stress concentration appears in components that show abrupt changes in its geometry, or discontinuities such as holes, U-notches, key seats, etc. The presence of such discontinuities leads to an increase in the stress value, normally quantied by the stress concentration factor dened by: max Kt = (9) nom where max is the maximum stress in the immediate neighborhood of the discontinuity and nom is the stress that could occur in the reduced section of the region that contains discontinuities, in case there was no perturbation in the stress distribution caused by the abrupt change of geometry.

(a) Fig. 2.

(b)

(c)

Models with initial hydrogen concentration c0 and geometries 2(a), 2(b) and 2(c) submitteds to stress.

IV. BOUNDARY VALUE PROBLEM The purpose of this work is to calculate the deformations and the stress concentration factors of a model axially loaded with tensile loads in a stress plane state, in the presence of hydrogen solute atoms in solid solution in the material. The calculations of the hydrogen concentration attached to the local hydrostatic stress, is achieved simultaneously. The mechanical equilibrium in the plane can be established by the virtual work principle in the absence of body forces, by: ij ij dA =
A s

Pi ui dS

(10)

where A is the area and S is the domain contour. Pi is the component of the applied forces over S, and ui is the displacement component in A. The symbol indicates a virtual arbitrary variation of the preceding quantity. The local dilatational deformation from the hydrogen governed by Eq. (2) is not linear, since it depends upon the hydrogen concentration that, in turn, depends upon the local hydrostatic stress. It is assumed that the material is homogeneous and isotropic with elastic-linear response, that works under the regimen of small deformations in a semi-static process of loading. Neither is the hydrogen transport by dislocation considered, nor is its trapping in the micro structural defects is considered, and its initial hydrogen distribution is considered to be continuous through the structure. The geometrys models studied are shown in Figure 2. The models have a relation between length l and width w, l = 1.5w, and thickness t almost ignored compared to the other dimensions of the piece. V. FINITE ELEMENTS CALCULATIONS The nite elements method [8] was used to solve the problem dened in previous section: Making {U} denote the set of nodal displacements and using the standard matrices of [N] interpolation for the displacements, [B] for the strains and [E] for the constitutive properties of a isotropic material, one can rewrite the Eq. (10) in the matrix form as: [K] {U } = {re } (11)

where {re } represents the vector of external applied forces and the internal forces generated by the introduction of hydrogen into the lattice. The Eq. (11) in the extended form becomes: [B] [E] [B] {U } dA =
A S T

[N ] {P } dS +
A

[B] [E] H dA

(12)

The equilibrium concentration cL depends both, the nominal concentration c0 and the hydrostatic stress, and is calculated by Eqs. (6) and (7). The Youngs modulus of the lattice are allowed to vary pointwise according to the corresponding local hydrogen equilibrium concentration cL and is calculated as dictated by Eq. (5). Finally, the mechanical effect of hydrogen is modeled by a dilatational transformation strain whose components varies pointwise an its magnitude depends upon the local hydrogen concentration, according to Eq.(2). The commercial software ANSYS V 8.0 was used to carry out the simulation.

(a) Fig. 3.

(b)

(c)

Models of the three geometries deformed under applied stress. The material was not hydrogenated.

The nite element mesh initially was composed of 785 nodes and 360 six-nodded triangular isoparametric elements. For the stress concentration factors calculations, a much more rened mesh was used in the proximities of the regions with geometric variation, automatically processed when required. The purpose was to improve the approximation of results with the results obtained in laboratory tests. VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The solution was obtained for the three models presented in Figure 2, using standard dimensions [15] of high strength steel with yield stress y = 1, 200 MPa, Youngs modulus E = 207 109 Pa, shear modulus G = 7.962 1010 Pa and Poissons ratio = 0.3, to a normal stress = 5 107 Pa and to a temperature of 300 K. The model width was w = 0.2 m and the thickness t = 0.01 m. It was assumed that the lattice expanded isotropically with the entering of the hydrogen atoms, being its partial molar volume in solution in the iron, VH = 2.0 106 m3 /mol [3, 4]. The Eq. (3) was equal to 0.281cL , after the calculation of the mean atomic volume of iron. The parameter was considered to be equal to 1, corresponding to the maximum concentration in the NILS of a one hydrogen atom per lattice atom [3, 4]. The Youngs modulus of the hydrogenated material E H and the equilibrium concentration cL were calculated according to the Eqs. (5) and (6), respectively. The rst simulations were conducted to nd out the deformations and the stress concentration factors in the models of nonhydrogenated material aiming to have a referential basis. The following gures show the behavior of the material submitted to tensile loads. Figure 3 shows the elastic deformation of the material, where the gray shadow and the rst white line dotted above represent the original form and dimensions of the model. Figure 4 shows models with elastically deformed material and the stress distribution in different gray tones. The regions with higher stresses were those whose structures presented geometric variations. The strong gray tone showed the region with structure under the effect of more elevated stresses; the values of these stresses enabled to calculate the stress concentration factors Kt = 1.73 for the second geometry and Kt = 2.16 for the third. The values calculated coincide almost perfectly with the results obtained in laboratory tests [15]. Assuming that the values reported in the laboratory tests were more representative, the calculation errors were +1.1% and +0.9% respectively. In the case of the model without any discontinuities, the stress distribution was uniform in all the structure. A second range of simulations was carried out to study the material behavior under the same stress applied in the rst simulation (5 107 Pa) and, this time, with the presence of hydrogen solute atoms. In each of them, the stress applied remained constant, using four different values of initial concentration.105 , 104 , 103 and 102 H atoms/Fe atom. Table I shows the results of the two ranges of simulation. They show that the hydrogenated material underwent bigger deformations than the material without hydrogen and that the deformations were bigger as the concentration increased, having the phenomenon repeated in the three models. The situation can be attributed to the decrease in the Youngs modulus provoked by the hydrogen, to its inuence in elastic strain, or a combination of both factors. The rst analysis of these results showed that the deformation of the non-hydrogenated material in relation to the deformations resulting from the hydrogen concentrations adopted, increased in 320% for the three models and that they increased expressively whereas the concentration grew linearly. Thus, it was possible to determine that the inuence of the hydrogen concentration in the elastic deformation of the material was very important, mainly concerning high concentrations. Figure 5 shows the relation

(a) Fig. 4.

(b)

(c)

Stress distribution in the structure of the three geometries. The arrows indicates the occurrence of higher stresses.

TABLE I D EFORMATIONS OF THE MODELS FOR = 5 107 Pa AND FOR c0 = 0, 105 , 104 , 103 AND 102 H atoms/Fe atom. T HE NON - HYDROGENATE MATERIAL YOUNG S MODULUS IS IN THE HIGHLIGHTED LINES . Modelo (Pa) 5E+7 c0 cL (H atoms/Fe atom) (H atoms/Fe atom) 0 0 1.0000E-5 1.0135E-5 1.0000E-4 1.0135E-4 1.0000E-3 1.0134E-3 1.0000E-2 1.0133E-2 0 0 1.0000E-5 1.0135E-5 1.0000E-4 1.0135E-4 1.0000E-3 1.0134E-3 1.0000E-2 1.0133E-2 0 0 1.0000E-5 1.0135E-5 1.0000e-4 1.0135E-4 1.0000E-3 1.0134E-3 1.0000E-2 1.0133E-2 EH (Pa) 2.07E+11 2.069998E+11 2.069983E+11 2.069832E+11 2.069322E+11 2.07E+11 2.069998E+11 2.069983E+11 2.069832E+11 2.069322E+11 2.07E+11 2.069998E+11 2.069983E+11 2.069832E+11 2.069322E+11 (m/m) 0.0002415 0.0002425 0.0002510 0.0003365 0.0011909 0.0003991 0.0004001 0.0004086 0.0004940 0.0013485 0.0002869 0.0002878 0.0002997 0.0003818 0.0012363

Geom (a)

Geom (b)

5E+7

Geom (c)

5E+7

Fig. 5. Deformations variation of the material with hydrogen concentration for = 5107 P a and for co = 105 , 104 , 103 and 102 H atoms/Fe atom.

of the material deformations with the increment of the hydrogen concentration where the behavior is the same for the models of the three geometries. The second analysis of the same results illustrated in Figure 6 presented a reduction of the Youngs modulus in 0.081% with the increase of the hydrogen concentration, being more notable in concentrations higher than c0 = 103 . For low concentrations,

Fig. 6.

Variation in the Young modulus with hydrogen concentration cL , for c0 = 105 , 104 , 103 and 102 H atoms/Fe atom.

TABLE II D EFORMATIONS OF THE NON - HYDROGENATED MODELS UNDER THE ACTION OF THE YOUNG S MODULUS MODIFIED BY THE HYDROGEN . T HE YOUNG S MODULUS AND THE DEFORMATION OF THE NON - HYDROGENATED MATERIAL ARE IN THE HIGHLIGHTED LINES . Modelo (Pa) 5E+7 cL (H atoms/Fe atom) 0 1.0135E-5 1.0135E-4 1.0134E-3 1.0133E-2 0 1.0135E-5 1.0135E-4 1.0134E-3 1.0133E-2 0 1.0135E-5 1.0135E-4 1.0134E-3 1.0133E-2 EH (Pa) 2.07E+11 2.069998E+11 2.069983E+11 2.069832E+11 2.069322E+11 2.07E+11 2.069998E+11 2.069983E+11 2.069832E+11 2.069322E+11 2.07E+11 2.069998E+11 2.069983E+11 2.069832E+11 2.069322E+11 (m/m) 0.0002415467 0.0002415467 0.0002415467 0.0002415467 0.0002417433 0.0003991333 0.0003991333 0.0003991333 0.0003991667 0.0003994333 0.0002868833 0.0002868833 0.0002868867 0.0002869067 0.0002871167

Geom (a)

Geom (b)

5E+7

Geom (c)

5E+7

the effect was almost unnoticed, and it is notably bigger for higher concentrations. Although it can be stated that the decrease of this modulus in terms of percentage was less signicant, it can also be stated that the hydrogen inuence was very signicant because it affected a property of the material. It is also important to emphasize that this variation was conditioned to the relation adopted in this paper and proposed by [11], Eq. (5), and that it could vary when occurring to other materials, according to different effects and relations founded for the vanadium and tantalum (Fisher et al., 1975) apud [12]. The third range of simulations was conducted in order to establish the effect of the changes on the Youngs modulus in the material deformation. These simulations consisted of models with non-hydrogenated material under the action of the same stress (5 107 Pa) and with the values of Youngs modulus obtained from Table 1 that were modied by the hydrogen. This situation is hypothetical, and it was only presented with illustrative purposes. The results shown in Table II indicate that the deformations were not signicant when compared to those affected by the hydrogenated material under the action of the same stress (5 107 Pa) and were about 0.08% for the three geometries. These results show that, in this specic case, almost all the deformation that occurred in the hydrogenated material submitted to tensile loads resulted from the hydrogen action, being the part attributed to the change in the Youngs modulus very small. These changes in the elastic behavior of the hydrogenated material can be explained for the fact that just the entering of the hydrogen atoms into the lattice caused dilatational deformations which are bigger as their concentrations increased, and that they could be added to the structure deformations provoked by the external loadings. Finally, other range of simulations was conducted in order to establish the material behavior under elevated concentrations associated with the application of stresses also elevated. To facilitate the analysis, the geometric model (b) was used under the effect of normal stresses, equal to 3 108 , 4 108 , 5 108 , and 1 109 Pa, and initial concentrations c0 equal to 103 , 102 and 101 H atoms/Fe atom. Table III shows the simulation results and Figure 7 shows once again the great effect of the hydrogen on the material deformation, being more noticeable as the concentrations increased. For the lower levels of concentrations in the beginning, the deformations did not grow signicantly, while for higher concentrations, the deformation grew quickly ignoring the initial

TABLE III D EFORMATIONS OF THE MODELS FOR = 3 108 , 4 108 , 5 108 AND 1 109 Pa AND FOR c0 = 103 , 102 Model (Pa) 3E+08 4E+08 Geom (b) 5E+08 1E+09 c0 (H atoms/Fe atom) 1.0000E-03 1.0000E-02 1.0000E-01 1.0000E-03 1.0000E-02 1.0000E-01 1.0000E-03 1.0000E-02 1.0000E-01 1.0000E-03 1.0000E-02 1.0000E-01 cL (H atoms/Fe atom) 1.0834E-03 1.0826E-02 1.0746E-01 1.1128E-03 1.1116E-02 1.1005E-01 1.1429E-03 1.1414E-02 1.1269E-01 1.3062E-03 1.3026E-02 1.2677E-01 EH (Pa) 2.069821E+11 2.068207E+11 2.052205E+11 2.069816E+11 2.068159E+11 2.051776E+11 2.069811E+11 2.068110E+11 2.051338E+11 2.069784E+11 2.067843E+11 2.049007E+11

AND

101 H atoms/Fe atom.

(m/m) 0.0024960 0.0034107 0.0124803 0.0032971 0.0042367 0.0135287 0.0040983 0.0050637 0.0145827 0.0081047 0.0092100 0.0199377

Fig. 7. Deformation variation in the geometry model (b) with the equilibrium hydrogen concentration,cL , for c0 = 103 , 102 , and 101 , and = 3 108 , 4 108 , 5 108 and 1 109 Pa.

behavior (semi-vertical line). This behavior is observed to all stresses applied. It is important to point out the fact that, when the applied stresses were higher, the equilibrium concentrations were also higher, and that such concentrations were responsible for the most important part of the deformation in the material. It should be observed that, for the last applied stress (1 109 Pa) which was close to the yield stress of the material, the curve behavior is similar to those of other stress, presenting a signicant advance of the deformations; being possible to assume that when the applied stresses were high and the provoked concentration levels were also high, the internal stresses generated by the hydrogen and added to the external ones may have reached the yield stress of the material, causing plastic deformations as the material is supposedly working under elastic regimen. Regarding the hydrogen inuence in the stress concentration factors, the results showed that it was null. The values of maximum stresses calculated in the discontinuities of the non-hydrogenated material structures remained the same in all the simulations conducted with material containing hydrogen. These results were already expected since the stress concentrators are magnitudes that depend solely upon the geometry and applied stresses. VII. C ONCLUSIONS The numerical simulation results showed that he hydrogen effects on the material behavior were in accordance with the theoretical foundation, that is, that the elastic moduli were affected, and that dilatational deformations were caused in the lattice. Both were determining phenomena in the variations of the material elastic behavior. Thus, the most important part in the material deformation resulted from the hydrogen. The results obtained also conrmed that the hydrogen effects were less important when the concentrations were low compared to the critical concentrations. They are relevant as the concentration rises and, the higher the concentration, the smaller hydrostatic stresses are needed to reach critical concentrations. Finally, it is relevant to relate the presence of the hydrogen atoms with the arising of internal stresses in the material that grows with the increase of their concentration. In certain circumstances, these locally generated stresses may exceed the yield stress of the material by causing irreversible deformations that could turn into vulnerable points that may lead to the structure breakage.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors are truly grateful for the nancial aid from RPCMOD (FINEP/CTPETRO/PETROBRAS) that has signicantly contributed to improve the Computing Mechanic laboratories, and for the research fellowship allowed by CNPq (DIT). R EFERENCES
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