Effects of hydrogen pressure and test frequency on fatigue crack growth properties of Ni–Cr–Mo steel candidate for a storage cylinder of a 70 MPa hydrogen filling station

Experiments to investigate the effect of hydrogen pressure and test frequency on the fatigue crack growth properties of a Ni–Cr–Mo steel for the storage cylinder of a 70 MPa hydrogen storage station were conducted. Compact tension specimens were cut out from the storage cylinder. The crack growth properties obtained in hydrogen gas were compared with those obtained in air. Higher hydrogen pressures and lower loading frequencies lead to faster crack growth. However, there is an upper limit to the acceleration of the fatigue crack growth rate in hydrogen gas, which can be used for the design of the hydrogen cylinder. The effect of long and large inclusions present in the steel was also verified. The observations carried out on specimen fracture surfaces showed that the low population of inclusions did not influence the fatigue crack growth rate.