Manifestation of Hydride Phase Transformations in the Hydrogen Permeability of Polycrystalline Titanium and Zirconium

Titanium and zirconium alloys are indispensable structural materials in many technical applications due to their unique mechanical and physicochemical properties. Titanium and zirconium belong to the fourth (“titanium”) group, due to which one would expect them to exhibit a similar character of hydrogen permeability through alloys of these metals. The results of experiments on the hydrogen permeability of these alloys are compared and analyzed. It is revealed that the hydrogen permeation kinetics for both alloys is mainly determined by the low rate of surface processes and phase transformations, occurring as a result of increasing hydrogen concentration. It is shown that the hydrogen permeability method can be used to find the terminal solid solubility of hydrogen in metals.