Finite element modelling of the impact of voids evolution on hydrogen transport

  • Chroeun, Sokay (LSPM-CNRS)
  • Chartles, Yann (LSPM-CNRS)
  • Mougenot, Jonathan (LSPM-CNRS)
  • Gaspérini, Monique (LSPM-CNRS)

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Hydrogen transport in metals is coupled with multiple interactions that can either accelerate, or decelerate that phenomenon. Among them, trapping processes of hydrogen on material defects are especially detrimental to hydrogen diffusion kinetics, while it critically modifies the local hydrogen concentration [1]. Being able to obtain a representative image of the trapping is therefore essential to develop predictive models to be applied to structures in service in a hydrogen environment, because it is necessary to obtain the spatiotemporal evolution of the hydrogen population at each point of the material. Among traps, voids are not that much considered [2,3], compared to dislocations, especially in the context on mechanically loaded structures [4,5]. However, their impact can be critical, especially in additive manufacturing samples, or when there are the consequences of the coupling with plasticity (ductile damage, blistering). To account for the impact of voids in the diffusion’s kinetics of hydrogen, the transport and equation proposed by Sofronis is used [4], and modified to describe hydrogen trapping in a random void population. An equivalent porosity radius is introduced to be able to account for a transient trapping process. This approach is coupled with a GTN model [6,7], which allows to mimic a ductile damage process, inducing a spatio-temporal evolution of the pore population, i.e., of the radius of the equivalent pore, leading to further modification of the diffusion and trapping equation. This approach has been implemented in Abaqus finite Element software and has been applied on a reference configuration to capture the impact of pore creation on the hydrogen diffusion process.