Hydrogen-Assisted Micro-Damage in Cold-Drawn Pearlitic Steels: Resembling Donatello Wooden Sculpture Texture

Abstract

This paper deals with hydrogen embrittlement of cold-drawn pearlitic steel wires to be used in prestressed concrete structures in civil engineering. Special attention is given to the micro-level of hydrogen degradation, i.e, the hydrogen-assisted micro-damage (HAMD) that takes place in pearlitic steels in the form of the so-called tearing topography surface (TTS). It is shown that the appearance of this special topography evolves with the degree of cold drawing in the steels (level of cumulative plastic strain undergone by the wires) from standard TTS in hot rolled pearlitic steels (not cold-drawn at all) to a special hydrogen damage topography (HDT) consisting of a sort of enlarged and oriented TTS in heavily cold-drawn pearlitic steels (prestressing steel wires), thereby resembling Donatello wooden sculpture texture (DWST).