On the Use of Multi-Step Dies for Improving the Performance against Hydrogen Embrittlement of Cold Drawn Prestressing Steel Wires

The main cause of in-service failure of cold drawn wires in aggressive environments is hydrogen embrittlement (HE). The non-uniform plastic strains and residual stresses generated after cold drawing play a significant role in the matter of HE susceptibility of prestressing steels. In this paper, a new and innovative design of the drawing scheme is developed, geared towards the reduction in both manufacturing-induced residual stresses and plastic strains. To achieve this goal, three innovative cold drawing chains (consisting in diverse multi-step dies where multiple diameter reductions are progressively carried out in a single die) are numerically simulated by the finite element (FE) method. From the residual stress and plastic strain fields revealed from FE numerical simulations, hydrogen accumulation for diverse times of exposure is obtained by means of FE simulations of the hydrogen diffusion assisted by stress and strains. Thus, an estimation of the HE susceptibility of the cold drawn wires after each process was obtained. Results reveal that cold drawn wire using multi-step dies exhibits lower stress and strain states nearby the wire surface. This reduction causes a decrease in the hydrogen concentration at the prospective damage zones, thereby improving the performance of the prestressing steel wires in hydrogenating environments promoting HE. Thus, the optimal wire drawing process design is carried out using special dies with several reductions per die.