• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2009

Occurrence of hydrogen embrittlement could be one of the main obstacles for using structural equipment under hydrogen environment. It is required to develop assessment methods of hydrogen embrittlement for the metals used in production, storage, transmission and application utilities of hydrogen. The most probable method of hydrogen mass transmission is using existing natural gas pipeline. Base or weld part of the pipeline can be damaged by mixed gas of hydrogen in the pipeline. In this study small punch (SP) testing was employed to evaluate the hydrogen embrittlement behavior for a line pipe steel (API X65) with electrochemically hydrogen charged specimens. Results showed that the SP test can be a good candidate test method for hydrogen damage evaluation method. Strength of steel is known to be decreased with the level of hydrogen charging. However, for API X65 steel base metal need in this study, the effect of hydrogen to strength was not significant. It can be negligible regardless of the hydrogen contents in the steel. With this test different strength levels with various hydrogen charging conditions were observed. It can also be anticipated that more sensitive evaluation of material behavior be obtainable by the SP test method.