Exploring the use of neutrons to detect hydrogen embrittlement in high strength steel

With the aim of exploring neutron techniques for the non-destructive detection of hydrogen in embrittled steel, three sets of steel samples were studied with neutron scattering: Ni coated, Cd coated, and Cr coated. Each set contained a non-embrittled or low-hydrogen concentration reference and one or two embrittled and high-hydrogen concentration samples. It is observed that the incoherent scattering, when normalized by the intensity of the Bragg peak, is significantly higher for high-hydrogen concentration or embrittled samples than in the reference. Although the difference is small, this represents a non-destructive technique of detecting hydrogen embrittlement. Neutron radiography, and inelastic or small-angle scattering could not distinguish between embrittled and reference samples.