DIFFUSION OF HYDROGEN IN WELDED JOINTS OF STRUCTURAL STEELS
High-strength low-alloy steels are widely used in the construction of welded metal structures. The main advantage of these steels is good combination of strength and toughness, and weldability. However, when welding high strength low alloy steels during cooling of the weld to a temperature below 150-100 °C there may be a risk of formation of bulk crystal structures defects in the weld zone - cold cracks. It was experimentally established that one of the factors contributing to the formation of cold cracks may be the occlusion of hydrogen in the atmosphere of arc plasma in the solidifying weld metal, from which diffusion hydrogen may diffuse to different areas of the weld after cooling. Hydrogen cracking typically has a tendency to slow down i.e. cracks can occur several days after the completion of welding process. As a rule, hydrogen induced cracking occurs either in the original steel in the heat-affected zone or in the weld metal, which is important, topical and long been researched by various scientific schools. Modern technologies of high strength low alloy steels processing have significantly improved the quality of the base material by reducing the amount of carbon and impurities, which has increased the stability of weld in the heat affected zone (HAZ) to hydrogen induced cold cracking. The paper presents modern approaches to the definition of diffusion coefficient of hydrogen in welded joints of high-strength low-alloy steels. Taking into account the temperature, the gradient of chemical potential and continuity conditions there has been considered the process of mass transfer of hydrogen under the influence of diffuse inhomogeneous mediums. It has been shown that the local effects of changing pressure and chemical potential are described using the equation of generalized potential of the diffusing substance. Our paper presents analytical expressions to determine the apparent diffusion coefficient of hydrogen in different local areas of a welded joint depending on temperature.