Hydrogen embrittlement is a complex phenomenon, involving several length- and timescales, that affects a large class of metals. It can significantly reduce the ductility and load-bearing capacity and cause cracking and catastrophic brittle failures at stresses below the yield stress of susceptible materials. Despite a large research effort in attempting to understand the mechanisms of failure and in developing potential mitigating solutions, hydrogen embrittlement mechanisms are still not completely understood. There are controversial opinions in the literature regarding the underlying mechanisms and related experimental evidence supporting each of these theories. The aim of this paper is to provide a detailed review up to the current state of the art on the effect of hydrogen on the degradation of metals, with a particular focus on steels. Here, we describe the effect of hydrogen in steels from the atomistic to the continuum scale by reporting theoretical evidence supported by quantum calculation and modern experimental characterisation methods, macroscopic effects that influence the mechanical properties of steels and established damaging mechanisms for the embrittlement of steels. Furthermore, we give an insight into current approaches and new mitigation strategies used to design new steels resistant to hydrogen embrittlement.

The complex inhomogeneous architecture of the human meniscal tissue at the micro and nano scale in the absence of artefacts introduced by sample treatments has not yet been fully revealed. The knowledge of the internal structure organization is essential to understand the mechanical functionality of the meniscus and its relationship with the tissue’s complex structure. In this work, we investigated human meniscal tissue structure using up-to-date non-invasive imaging techniques, based on multiphoton fluorescence and quantitative second harmonic generation microscopy complemented with Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy measurements. Observations on 50 meniscal samples extracted from 6 human menisci (3 lateral and 3 medial) revealed fundamental features of structural morphology and allowed us to quantitatively describe the 3D organisation of elastin and collagen fibres bundles. 3D regular waves of collagen bundles are arranged in “honeycomb-like” cells that are comprised of pores surrounded by the collagen and elastin network at the micro-scale. This type of arrangement propagates from macro to the nanoscale.

The knee meniscus is a highly porous structure which exhibits a grading architecture through the depth of the tissue. The superficial layers on both femoral and tibial sides are constituted by a fine mesh of randomly distributed collagen fibers while the internal layer is constituted by a network of collagen channels of a mean size of 22.14 $$\mu $$μ m aligned at a $$30^{\circ }$$30 ∘ inclination with respect to the vertical. Horizontal dog-bone samples extracted from different depths of the tissue were mechanically tested in uniaxial tension to examine the variation of elastic and viscoelastic properties across the meniscus. The tests show that a random alignment of the collagen fibers in the superficial layers leads to stiffer mechanical responses (E = 105 and 189 MPa) in comparison to the internal regions (E = 34 MPa). All regions exhibit two modes of relaxation at a constant strain ( $$\tau _1 = 6.4$$τ 1 = 6.4 to 7.7 s, $$\tau _2$$τ 2 = 49.9 to 59.7 s).

This paper deals with the modelling of the combined hydrogen embrittlement phenomena: hydrogen-enhanced local plasticity (HELP) and hydrogen-induced decohesion (HID) in dissimilar welds through a cohesive zone modelling approach (CZM). Fractured samples of dissimilar weld interfaces in AISI8630/IN625 show that cracks propagate in a region called the “featureless” region located in the Nickel side of the weld. This region is characterized by the presence of a distribution of fine carbides. We model the effect of hydrogen on the material toughness as the result of a synergistic effect of HELP and HID mechanisms where (i) hydrogen enhanced dislocation mobility promotes the development of dislocation structures at the carbides which increases the stress on the particles; while the presence of hydrogen also results in (ii) a reduction in the (a) cohesive strength of the carbide/matrix interface and (b) in the local flow stress of the matrix. The decohesion mechanism at the carbide/matrix interface is modelled through a two-dimensional user-defined cohesive element implemented in a FORTRAN subroutine (UEL) in the commercial finite element code ABAQUS and the effect of the hydrogen on the plasticity properties of the matrix is coded in a UMAT routine. Preliminary analysis on a unit cell representing the matrix/carbide system under plane strain shows that HELP and HID are competitive mechanisms. When the combined mechanism HELP+HID occurs microcracks form at the matrix/carbide interface due to decohesion process followed by localization of plastic flow responsible for the link-up of the microcracks.

The meniscus is an integral part of the human knee, preventing joint degradation by distributing load from the femoral condyles to the tibial plateau. Recent qualitative studies suggested that the meniscus is constituted by an intricate net of collagen channels inside which the fluid flows during loading. The aim of this study is to describe in detail the structure in which this fluid flows by quantifying the orientation and morphology of the collagen channels of the meniscal tissue. A 7 mm cylindrical sample, extracted vertically from the central part of a lateral porcine meniscus was freeze-dried and scanned using the highest-to-date resolution Microscopic Computed Tomography. The orientation of the collagen channels, their size and distribution was calculated. Comparisons with confocal multi-photon microscopy imaging performed on portions of fresh tissue have shown that the freeze-dried procedure adopted here ensures that the native architecture of the tissue is maintained. Sections of the probe at different heights were examined to determine differences in composition and structure along the sample from the superficial to the internal layers. Results reveal a different arrangement of the collagen channels in the superficial layers with respect to the internal layers with the internal layers showing a more ordered structure of the channels oriented at 30 $$^{\circ }$$∘ with respect to the vertical, a porosity of 66.28% and the mean size of the channels of 22.14 $$\mu {\text {m}}$$μ m .