Localized corrosion of steels in geothermal steam/brine mixtures

Conference · Thu May 29 00:00:00 EDT 1980

OSTI ID:5231592

McCright, R D; Frey, W F; Tardiff, G E

Coupons of eight different carbon and chrome-moly alloy steels were exposed to high temperature, high salinity wellhead brine flow at a geothermal well in the Salton Sea Geothermal Field for periods of up to six months. The corrosion rate and corrosion attack morphology of each coupon was determined. Exposure time was a test variable and ranged from one month to six months. Test results indicate that carbon steels generally suffer high corrosion rates and are susceptible to severe localized attack which shows a mesa-canyon pattern. Chrome-moly alloy steels corrode at much lower rates and show an attack pattern of small shallow pits. With time, these pits grow mostly in the lateral direction. These results suggest that chrome-moly alloy steels offer significant improvement over carbon steels and that the disk-shaped pits are not likely to lead to rapid perforation.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 5231592
• Report Number(s): UCRL-84489; CONF-800920-20
• Resource Relation: Conference: Geothermal Resource Council annual meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, 9 Sep 1980
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
BRINES
CORROSIVE EFFECTS
CARBON STEELS
CORROSION
CHROMIUM-MOLYBDENUM STEELS
GEOTHERMAL FLUIDS
PITTING CORROSION
SALTON SEA GEOTHERMAL FIELD
ALLOYS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHROMIUM ALLOYS
CHROMIUM STEELS
FLUIDS
GEOTHERMAL FIELDS
IRON ALLOYS
IRON BASE ALLOYS
STEELS
Geothermal Legacy
150903* - Geothermal Engineering- Corrosion
Scaling & Materials Development