Disturbed flow and flow accelerated corrosion in oil and gas production
- Exxon Production Research Co., Houston, TX (United States). Materials Section
The effect of fluid flow on corrosion of steel in oil and gas environments involves a complex interaction of physical and chemical parameters. The basic requirement for any corrosion to occur is the existence of liquid water contacting the pipe wall, which is primarily controlled by the flow regime. The effect of flow on corrosion, or flow accelerated corrosion, is defined by the mass transfer and wall shear stress parameters existing in the water phase that contacts the pipe wall. While existing fluid flow equations for mass transfer and wall shear stress relate to equilibrium conditions, disturbed flow introduces non-equilibrium, steady state conditions not addressed by these equations, and corrosion testing in equilibrium conditions cannot be effectively related to corrosion in disturbed flow. The problem in relating flow effects to corrosion is that steel corrosion failures in oil and gas environments are normally associated with disturbed flow conditions as a result of weld beads, preexisting pits, bends, flanges, valves, tubing connections, etc. Steady state mass transfer and wall shear stress relationships to steel corrosion and corrosion testing are required for their application to corrosion of steel under disturbed flow conditions. A procedure is described to relate the results of a corrosion test directly to corrosion in an operation system where disturbed flow conditions are expected, or must be considered.
- OSTI ID:
- 357825
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980213-; TRN: IM9932%%170
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 1998 energy sources technology conference, Houston, TX (United States), Feb 1998; Other Information: PBD: 1998; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 1998 ASME energy sources technology conference (ETCE`98); PB: [1170] p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Recording of local flow disturbances behind obstacles where mesa attack have occurred
Two-phase flow in a vertical pipe and the phenomenon of choking: Homogeneous diffusion model. Part I. Homogeneous flow models