L’Institut de la Corrosion contribue à plusieurs projets de recherche européens dont RFCS DuplexWASTE project, Seachem Project et AtHycor.
AtHyCor project :Modelling of hydrogen activity from atmospheric corrosion in ultra-high strength steels for light structure application
Start: 01/07/2021
Duration: 36 months
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Steel in automotive industry excels as a material of choice thanks to the development of high-performance grades displaying excellent mechanical properties. However, the steel industry still faces major challenge that is to prove that their newest steel solutions will sustain the service conditions of a vehicle, particularly those related to hydrogen assisted cracking under atmospheric corrosion conditions. Indeed, ultra-high strength steels are known to be sensitive to hydrogen embrittlement and nowadays, from early steps, the fabrication processes are adapted to control the risks of delayed fracture for instance. Even the microstructures of advanced steels are tailored to decrease the sensitivity of the steels to hydrogen. However, atmospheric corrosion can be an additional source of hydrogen during service life, which was probably not so dangerous for low grades, but become critical for high strength steels with ultimate tensile strength above 1000 MPa. And this problem needs to be solved to make steel more competitive and to rise reliability.
The main scientific objective of the AtHyCor is to develop a simulation tool that can model hydrogen entry and distribution into coated ultra-high strength steel (UHSS) exposed to atmospheric corrosion conditions. The industrial aim of this project is thus to provide steel makers and car manufacturers with new data related to environmentally assisted fracture risks of ultra-high strength steels and with a simulation tool that could anticipate such risks.
The AtHyCor project addresses several topics related to the limit of use of ultra-high strength steels in the automotive industry. The gathered knowledge and the new data sets and models will represent a clear progress beyond the state of the art in all aspects related to atmospheric corrosion, hydrogen entry and hydrogen assisted cracking risks of such steels. The way how the different aspects will be interlinked is an innovative concept of high relevance for the steel industry.
This project has received funding from the Research Fund for Coal and Steel under grant agreement No 101034041
