The amount of alloy elements that are added to a specific steel are crucial for its mechanical properties and with higher strength/hardness in the material the cracking risk typically increases. This means that a high strength steel is more prone to hydrogen cracking if other influencing factors like plate thickness, heat input and hydrogen content are kept the same. Generally, the alloy content rises with larger plate thicknesses for each steel grade. This is because higher levels of alloy elements are, in general terms, required to achieve the desired mechanical properties through the whole plate thickness.
The Hardox® and Strenx® grades are high strength steels with relatively low levels of alloys increasing their resistance to hydrogen cracking.
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