Abstract
The influence of the plastic deformation on the diffusion behaviour of hydrogen in steels was studied in electrochemical permeation experiments. Membrane specimens machined from a high strength structural steel were plastically deformed, either by cold rolling or by tensile straining, and the diffusion of atomic hydrogen in these membranes was measured in classical Devanathan-Stachursky type of experiments in which the specimens were charged with hydrogen on one side and the hydrogen flux at the exit side was measured in the form of a current. From the current versus time curves thus recorded effective diffusion coefficients were evaluated. The results thus obtained indicate clear evidence of the strain dependence of the effective hydrogen diffusion coefficient.
