Designing hydrogen-resistant steels: understanding diffusion, trapping, and inhibition mechanisms

The transition to a hydrogen economy relies on the safe and reliable performance of materials exposed to hydrogen across the value chain, from production to storage and utilization. Steels, in particular, face significant challenges due to hydrogen embrittlement. Our ongoing projects address this challenge by integrating mechanical testing, advanced microstructural characterization, and multiscale computational modelling to develop a comprehensive understanding of hydrogen diffusion, trapping, and inhibition in steels. Our recent results, based on computational approaches ranging from DFT to continuum-scale fracture models, enable the simulation of hydrogen-material interactions and provide guidance for material design.