Environmental embrittlement of austempered spheroidal graphite cast iron by exposure to water

摘要

The tensile deformation behavior of austempered spheroidal graphite cast iron has been investigated to obtain detailed information about the environmental embrittlement result from the exposure to water. The tensile strength and elongation showremarkably lower values by the exposure to water environment at room temperature. The degree of this reduction in tensile properties is not change with austempering time and exposuring time to water. As the strain rate decreases, tensile propertiesdecrease, as same as the test under the hydrogen gas environment. The environmental embrittlement is due to the hydrogen embrittlement promoted by the plastic deformation, as high strength steels or certain intermetallic compounds are.