HYDROGEN TRAPPING, DIFFUSION AND RECOMBINATION IN AUSTENITIC STAINLESS-STEELS

Trapping, diffusion, and recombination of hydrogen in austenitic stainless steels are reviewed. It is suggested that since all of these processes are strongly interdependent and since the measured recombination rates are found to vary four orders of magnitude at any temperature, the data analysis techniques used to date are insufficient. A two-region diffusion model with surface recombination is proposed in which the surface layer is characterized by a smaller diffusion coefficient than the bulk.