Advanced (ultra)high-strength steels that utilise bcc-fcc microstructures are appealing solutions for producing a combination of high strength and deformability. However, they are also susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement (HE). As larger less stable retained austenite (RA) can impair mechanical performance, its size and morphology are critical factors for achieving and maintaining the desired properties. Here, we present a combined experimental–density functional theory (DFT) study on HE with medium-carbon direct-quenched and partitioned (DQ&P) martensitic steels with varying vol% and film-thickness of RA, showing significantly improved HE resistance as a function of bcc-enrichment and increasing RA film-thickness. DFT reveals low attraction of hydrogen in bcc-Fe with Al, implying a stronger push towards fcc. Furthermore, the solubility of hydrogen increases dramatically with the carbon-enrichment of fcc-Fe when hydrogen and carbon are second neighbours. The theoretical results explain the observed differences in hydrogen diffusion, trap density, and the consecutively lower HE in Al-DQ&P over Si-DQ&P. Our combined experimental and theoretical study thus highlights the important interplay of bcc and fcc phases and H-uptake within austenite-containing carbon steels.

Multi-barrier cleavage models consider cleavage fracture which is characterized by a series of microscale events. One of the challenges for multi-barrier cleavage models is the strong variations of cleavage parameters across different types of steels. The source and magnitude of the variations have not been studied systematically. In the current paper, cleavage parameters corresponding to fracture initiation at a hard particle and crack propagation overcoming grain boundaries are determined for three bainitic steels, a martensitic steel, and a ferritic steel, using a recently proposed model. It is found that the particle fracture parameter depends on particle morphology and composition, while the grain boundary cleavage parameter depends on the hierarchical grain structure. The determined values of cleavage parameters present a high degree of consistency among the five different steels, which allows the further application on microstructure design to control macroscopic toughness.