Abstract
Plastic deformation of ferritic stainless steel alloy AL 29-4-2 has been found to severely decrease the diffusivity and permeation of hydrogen and to increase the solubility somewhat. These changes are compared to the effects of deformation on these quantities in austenitic alloys. The differences in behavior of these classes of stainless steels are interpreted in terms of trapping and phase transformation behavior. The uniformly deformed material is studied in an effort to simulate the state of material at the tip of a hydrogen embrittlement crack. The observed differences in crack propagation behavior in the alloys can be rationalized in terms of hydrogen transport and solubility in the deformed state. © 1989.