The effect of hydrogen content and yield strength on the distribution of hydrogen in steel: a diffusion coupled micromechanical FEM study

•Heterogeneous micromechanical stress fields resulted in the accumulation of lattice and dislocation trapped hydrogen at the grain boundaries.•Tensile loading has negligible effect on the uptake of the lattice hydrogen; however, it increased that of dislocation trapped hydrogen.•At low hydrogen content, the total hydrogen concentration was dominated by dislocation trapped hydrogen. The contribution of lattice hydrogen was more significant with increasing the hydrogen content.•Higher yield strength had a negligible effect on the lattice hydrogen uptake; however, it resulted in increased heterogeneity of its redistribution.•The relatively lower plastic deformation associated with higher yield strength resulted in lower concentration of dislocation trapped hydrogen.