Novel stress corrosion testing method for high‐strength steels

Abstract This paper presents a novel TFT (tuning fork test) stress corrosion testing method, which was developed for classifying martensitic high‐strength steels. The novel method was developed by applying finite element calculations to optimize a tuning fork geometry to enable accurate stress adjustment with simple inexpensive equipment. Different steels were exposed to cathodic hydrogen charging conditions with various elastic tensile stress levels that were achieved by displacement control. All steels exhibited hydrogen‐induced stress corrosion cracking after exceeding a material‐specific threshold stress level that decreased linearly with increasing hardness