The effect of lubricant environments on hydrogen embrittlement

Abstract

While it is well established that nascent catalytic sites formed during rolling contact fatigue (RCF) tests can decompose hydrocarbons and release atomic hydrogen, the potential for a hydrogen-rich fuel cell environment to hydrocrack lubricants under high-pressure rolling contact has not previously been considered.

This study investigates, for the first time, the ability of a hydrogen environment to promote the formation of a chemical tribofilm on the wear track, likely via lubricant hydrocracking, compared with argon and air atmospheres. Although hydrogen generates higher levels of atomic hydrogen, the resulting tribofilm significantly suppresses further hydrogen formation and its diffusion into bearing steel. These findings are highly relevant to hydrogen technologies and mitigating hydrogen embrittlement. High-energy micro-CT was also evaluated as a non-destructive method for subsurface RCF damage characterisation.

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ORCID for Monica Ratoi: orcid.org/0000-0001-8400-3054

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