Revisiting stress-corrosion cracking and hydrogen embrittlement in 7xxx-Al alloys at the near-atomic-scale

Martí López Freixes, Xuyang Zhou, Huan Zhao, Hélène Godin, Lionel Peguet, Timothy Warner and Baptiste Gault ()
Additional contact information
Martí López Freixes: Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH
Xuyang Zhou: Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH
Huan Zhao: Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH
Hélène Godin: Constellium Technology Center
Lionel Peguet: Constellium Technology Center
Timothy Warner: Constellium Technology Center
Baptiste Gault: Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The high-strength 7xxx series aluminium alloys can fulfil the need for light, high strength materials necessary to reduce carbon-emissions, and are extensively used in aerospace for weight reduction purposes. However, as all major high-strength materials, these alloys can be sensitive to stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) through anodic dissolution and hydrogen embrittlement (HE). Here, we study at the near-atomic-scale the intra- and inter-granular microstructure ahead and in the wake of a propagating SCC crack. Moving away from model alloys and non-industry standard tests, we perform a double cantilever beam (DCB) crack growth test on an engineering 7xxx Al-alloy. H is found segregated to planar arrays of dislocations and to grain boundaries that we can associate to the combined effects of hydrogen-enhanced localised plasticity (HELP) and hydrogen-enhanced decohesion (HEDE) mechanisms. We report on a Mg-rich amorphous hydroxide on the corroded crack surface and evidence of Mg-related diffusional processes leading to dissolution of the strengthening η-phase precipitates ahead of the crack.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31964-3 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-31964-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31964-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().