Failures of alloy K-500 (UNS N05500) components in seawater and sour gas applications have been attributed to hydrogen embrittlement (HE). Use of an appropriate heat treatment to decrease the hardness of alloy K-500 has been reported to reduce the likelihood of HE. In this paper, field service results given in the literature were compared with
correlations between irreversible hydrogen trapping parameters and literature data from tensile tests for alloy K-500 with different heat treatments. The laboratory tests pointed to annealing, rather than hardness, as the critical factor in the irreversible trapping behavior and HE susceptibility of aged alloy K-500. The test data indicated that an increase in trapping capacity produced by annealing leads to an increase in HE susceptibility. The difference between the laboratory and field data was explained on the basis of a brittle outer layer known to be present in alloy K-500 at high concentrations of hydrogen.
Key words: alloy K-500, hydrogen trapping, hydrogen embrittlement, tensile tests, potentiostatic