Investigation of the stress corrosion cracking of duplex stainless steel weldments in sour conditions
- Cortest Labs. Ltd., Sheffield (United Kingdom)
- UMIST, Manchester (United Kingdom). Corrosion and Protection Centre
Duplex stainless steels are increasingly widely used in the oil and gas production industry for a variety of applications. The stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behavior of wrought material is reasonably well understood, and limits of use are placed upon these alloys in NACE MR0175, for sour service. However, the SCC behavior of weldments is less well understood, and this has limited the use of welded material in H{sub 2}S-containing conditions. The SCC resistance of duplex stainless steels is influenced by their microstructure as well as their chemical composition and the objective of the research reported in this paper is to investigate the SCC behavior of welded 22%Cr and 25%Cr alloys in a simulated oilfield environment. Mechanized orbital TIG was used to butt weld 168mm outside diameter tubes. The shielding gas contained nitrogen additions of up to 10% (in the case of UNS S32760) and 7% (in the case of UNS S31803). Slow strain rate testing (SSRT) was conducted on cross-weld specimens in sodium chloride solutions overpressured with varying partial pressures of H{sub 2}S and CO{sub 2}. The SSRT results, in terms of ductility parameters and secondary cracking, are correlated with fractography and metallurgical examination of crack morphology in order to establish the effects of the welding process and the nitrogen content of the shielding gas. It was found that the nitrogen uptake from the shielding gas has a detrimental effect on SCC resistance of duplex stainless steel weldments. While this effect is only modes, it is in direct contrast to the beneficial effect it has on pitting corrosion resistance.
- OSTI ID:
- 106078
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950304--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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