| A cost effective, economically viable method to test the effects of Hydrogen on the Young's Modulus in a material is required to more rapidly test material samples to determine the best candidates for use in the burgeoning Hydrogen Economy. This thesis shows that ultrasonic testing can be used in place of tensile testing to effectively measure the Young's Modulus of a sample of A286 Stainless Steel, 21-6-9 Stainless Steel, or Hastelloy C-22 and determine the effects of Hydrogen. Error in data was shown to be an order of magnitude less for ultrasonic testing than tensile testing, approximately 0.5% versus 5%. Non-destructive testing showed a consistent trend of the Young's Modulus increasing as the metal is embrittled by Hydrogen. This was not the case with tensile testing. Some materials were found to increase while others decreased.;The viability of using ultrasonic testing on tensile samples was looked at extensively. It was determined that shear transducers can not be used effectively on the minor dimension of a rolled plate. The data obtained is unusable for later analysis. While the edge is unusable for data collection, through-thickness measurements were found to return highly repeatable data. Orientation of the shear transducer used was found to have no statistical significance. The longitudinal and shear transducers can be placed at will on the surface of the material. |
