Institute of Metals Division - The Thermal Diffusion of Hydrogen in Titanium (TN)

This note describes positive evidence that hydrogen in titanium alloys diffuses under the influence of a thermal gradient. The experiments confirmed the expected similarity of this system to the H-Zr system and produced qualitative information on the magnitude of the heat of transport for hydrogen in titanium alloys. This effect has practical importance in applications where titanium alloys operate in a thermal gradient under conditions such that hydrogen embrittlement may develop within the expected lifetime of the structure, for example in supersonic aircraft service. The theories of thermal-gradient diffusion may be found in recent reviews and experimentation in this field by Shewmon,1 Sawatzky,2 Markowitz,3 and Darken and Oriani.4 The basis for Soret thermal diffusion is the "heat of transport", denoted by Q*. This is an energy term for the amount of heat (energy) transferred by atomic diffusion, and can be either positive or negative signifying a driving force for atomic diffusion to the cooler or hotter region, respectively. Experimentally, Q* is determined by plotting the natural logarithm of the point-to-point concentrations after exposure to a thermal gradient vs the respective point-to-point temperatures in units of the inverse absolute temperature scale. The slope of the straight line is Q*/R, R being the gas constant. For the titanium experiments, specimens (3 by 1 by 1/16 in.) of a) commercially pure titanium, b) the 8 Al-1 Mo-1 V titanium alloy, and c) the 6 A1-4 V titanium alloy were exposed to thermal gradients of 6° to 115°C per in. for 18 days at 250° to 550°C. The temperature gradient was in the direction of the 3-in. dimension. The hydrogen concentrations existing after exposure were determined on sections of the specimens by vacuum extraction. Three sections of unexposed sheet of each alloy were analyzed as standards to allow a check for hydrogen