Short Communication SeN fatigue properties of a stable high-aluminum austenitic stainless steel for hydrogen applications Thorsten Michler a, *, Jo ¨rg Naumann b , Sebastian Weber c,d , Mauro Martin d , Richard Pargeter e a Adam Opel AG, 65423 Ruesselsheim, Germany b BMW AG, 80788 Munich, Germany c Helmholtz-Center Berlin for Materials and Energy GmbH, 14109 Berlin, Germany d Ruhr University Bochum, Institute for Materials, Chair of Materials Technology, 44780 Bochum, Germany e The Welding Institute TWI, Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridge CB21 6AL, UK article info Article history: Received 25 March 2013 Received in revised form 22 May 2013 Accepted 26 May 2013 Available online 25 June 2013 Keywords: Hydrogen embrittlement High aluminum austenitic stainless steel Low cycle fatigue abstract The fatigue properties of a novel high aluminum austenitic stainless steel with a high resistance against hydrogen embrittlement were investigated. SeN tests in 40 MPa H 2 at 50  C resulted in a reduction in fatigue life by a factor of about 2 compared to air. Striation analysis revealed no acceleration of crack growth rate but accelerated crack initiation or accelerated short crack growth in H 2 . No apparent difference in fatigue fracture charac- teristics and striation morphology between the air and H 2 tested specimens could be identified. Copyright ª 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Fuel cell vehicles are seen as the long term solution to enable sustainable mobility. Compressed hydrogen gas storage sys- tems are state of the art for on board hydrogen storage. Among the most important materials used for gaseous hydrogen storage and transport applications are stable CreNi austenitic stainless steels (SS) because of low susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement (HE) [1] at relevant operating condi- tions. One main result of these investigations was the predominant effect of nickel (Ni) as an alloying element, i.e. decreasing susceptibility to HE with increasing Ni content as revealed by tensile testing [2]. Unfortunately, Ni is an expen- sive alloying element making such steels unattractive for automotive mass production. In addition, such steels are often alloyed with molybdenum (Mo) increasing the alloy surcharge even further. Although austenite stability alone is not sufficient for a high resistance against HEE [3], it appears to be beneficial [4e7]. However, the role of martensitic transformation in HEE * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ49 151254789. E-mail addresses: michler@de.opel.com (T. Michler), joerg.naumann@bmw.de (J. Naumann), sebastian.weber@helmholz-berlin.de (S. Weber), martin@wtech.rub.de (M. Martin), richard.pargeter@twi.co.uk (R. Pargeter). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy 38 (2013) 9935 e9941 0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2013.05.145