Atomistic and continuum comparative studies on the stress distribution around a nano-crack on the grain boundary for modeling hydrogen embrittlement of iron

Ebihara, Kenichi   ; Kaburaki, Hideo; Itakura, Mitsuhiro  

Since hydrogen(H) embrittlement is one factor causing degradation and/or fracture of steel, understanding its mechanism is required. The grain-boundary(GB) decohesion due to segregation of H is considered to cause the delayed fracture of high strength steels and the cold cracking in welding. In the model based on GB decohesion, information of strength of GBs estimated in the atomic scale is used for the estimation of strength or crack propagation in the macroscopic scale. However the modeling between the atomic and the macroscopic scales is not clear. In particular, the validity of the model using the elastic continuum around nano-cracks for stress concentration at the crack tip is not clear. Thus, we examined the difference of the stress distribution around the nano-crack which was estimated by molecular dynamics and by a continuum calculation. As a result, the discrepancy became remarkable at high strain. The stress concentration was not simulated by the elastic continuum model.