Exploring the effect of hydrogen environment on the mechanical properties of structural metals

RAP opportunity at National Institute of Standards and Technology     NIST

Exploring the effect of hydrogen environment on the mechanical properties of structural metals

Location

Material Measurement Laboratory, Applied Chemicals and Materials Division

opportunity location
50.64.72.C0500 Boulder, CO

NIST only participates in the February and August reviews.

Advisers
name email phone
May L Martin [email protected] (303) 497-5235
Description

Hydrogen embrittlement is a bit unique among environmental phenomena in that it is important to industry and has also been extensively studied in academia.  However, due to the difficulties in working with gaseous hydrogen, systematic studies of classes of materials have been limited to select classes of industrially important steels under standard loading conditions.  NIST Boulder has one of the few facilities in the world capable of in situ testing in a high-pressure gaseous environment.  The equipment also has a great deal of flexibility in the types of mechanical testing, as it has already conducted tensile tests, fracture toughness tests, fatigue crack growth tests, and fully-reversed strain-life testing.  Proposed expansions of capabilities include strain-mapping through digital-image correlation and elevated temperatures of the environment.  In addition to this unique facility, mechanical testing experiments are also conducted at other NIST facilities, such as the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) and the NIST-run beamlines at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), in order to expand the characterization techniques available during testing.  This opportunity focuses on systematic studies or creative applications of mechanical loading to help further elucidate hydrogen-effects on materials performance in regimes little explored in the literature and further our understanding of the phenomenon which could adversely affect efforts to enact a hydrogen-based energy economy.

key words

fracture; fatigue; corrosion; materials; steel

Eligibility

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral applicants

Stipend
Base Stipend Travel Allotment Supplementation
$82,764.00 $3,000.00