The effect of occluded hydrogen on the tensile strength of iron

Abstract

For many years attention has been directed to the embrittling of iron and steel by acid, and it is generally considered that the embrittling is due to the occlusion of hydrogen by the metal. This subject is of particular importance in those branches of the iron and steel industry where acid is used to remove oxide from the surface of the metal before tinning, galvanizing, wire-drawing, etc. There is also some reason to suppose that certain boiler failures may be connected with the occlusion of hydrogen by the metal. A lorge number of investigations dealing with various aspects of the subject have been published, notably by Longmuir (1), Andrew (2), Fuller (3), Coulson (4), Parr (5), Watts and Fleckenstein (6), Langdon and Grossman (7) and Edwards (8).