Publications
| Title | | Authors |
|---|---|
| HIC assessment of low allow steel line pipe for sour sevice application – literature survey « back |
C Bosch, T Herrmann and J Martin |
| 15th Joint Technical Meeting, Orlando, Florida, May 2005 | |
| Wet sour gas and H2S containing electrolytes can be extremely corrosive to low-alloy steels. In presence of H2S the anodic metal dissolution be accelerated and hydrogen atoms originating from the corrosion reaction can diffuse into the steel, resulting in cracking, such as hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC), hydrogen-induced stress corrosion cracking (HSCC), sulphide stress cracking (SSC) and stress-oriented hydrogen-induced cracking (SOHIC). The presence of liquid water necessary for initiation of these mechanisms can even be achieved if the gas temperature in the pipeline is above the water dew point, i.e. where the lower temperature of the pipe wall compared to the gas temperature or the reduction of gas temperature due to the pressure drop along the pipeline results in the water vapour of the gas to condense. Due to the sudden, unforeseeable failure mode of cracking mechanisms, this type of damage is regarded much more dangerous than weight-loss corrosion. This project was restricted to a review of HIC and the associated failure mechanisms (SWC, SOHIC) as SSC was the subject of a separate, earlier EPRG study. | |
| Paper request | |