Electrochemical Noise of Stress Corrosion Cracking of P110 Tubing Steel in Sulphur-Containing Downhole Annular Fluid
Jun YU1, Deping ZHANG2,3, Ruosheng PAN2,3, Zehua DONG1()
1 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology,Wuhan 430074, China 2 Jilin Oilfield Company of PetroChina, Songyuan 138000, China 3 R&D Center of National Energy of CO2 Flooding and Embedded Technology, Songyuan 138000, China;
Cite this article:
Jun YU, Deping ZHANG, Ruosheng PAN, Zehua DONG. Electrochemical Noise of Stress Corrosion Cracking of P110 Tubing Steel in Sulphur-Containing Downhole Annular Fluid. Acta Metall Sin, 2018, 54(10): 1399-1407.
Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is considered as the main risk of tubing steels during the exploitation of oil and gas fields, which could result in sudden and catastrophic failures of downhole tubing. Especially in annular downhole environment, P110 tubing steel is prone to sulfide stress corrosion cracking and hydrogen embrittlement (HE) where S2- could be originated from bio-reduction of SO42- inspired by sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). Currently, extensive work have been performed to investigate the influence factors on SCC and mechanism of tubing steels, but limited researches have been conducted on the SCC of P110 tubing steel in annular downhole environment, particularly, on the early detection of SCC. In this work, the SCC behavior of P110 low alloy steel in simulating sulphur-containing annular fluid (SAF) and the effect of S2- concentration on the initiation and propagation of crack were investigated by slow stress rate test (SSRT), non-destructive electrochemical noise (ECN), SEM and EIS techniques. The results showed that, during the elastic stress stage, the addition of S2- accelerated the breakdown of passivation film on the surface of P110 steel tensile specimen. There are many short duration current transients caused by metastable pits on ECN curves. The transformation time of metastable to stable pits is shortened significantly by the addition of S2-, which not only promotes the growth of pits but the initiation of cracks from the stable pits under the action of tensile stress. Compared with the ECN spikes from metastable pits, the spikes associated to the advance of cracks are featured by longer average duration (about 400 s), stronger amplitude (40 μA), and higher charge (about 4000 μC). As a result, the susceptibility of P110 steel to SCC increases with S2- concentration, and the propagation of SCC is dominated by anodic dissolution characteristic of discontinuous advance.
Fig.1 Geometry of tensile specimen used in slow strain rate testing (SSRT). The specimen was masked by epoxy resin coating (grey area) with only a small area of 1 cm2 at the center being exposed to corrosion medium (unit: mm)
Fig.2 Experimental setup used for electrochemical noise measurement during SSRT (WE1, WE2, RE and ZRA are working electrode 1 (P110 steel tensile specimen), working electrode 2 (consisting of 4 P110 steel rods around WE1), reference electrode and zero resistance ammeter, respectively; R and Rc are feedback and counting resistances, respectively)
Fig.3 Stress-strain curves of P110 steel in air and in simulated annular fluid (SAF) with different concentrations of S2- (a), and S2- dependence of loss factors of reduction in fractured area (IR) and elongation (Iδ) of P110 steel (b)
Fig.4 Simultaneous electrochemical noise (ECN) curves of P110 steel during SSRT in SAF solutions containing different concentrations of S2- (t—time, i—current density, ESCE—potential) (a) 0 mg/L (b) 50 mg/L (c) 100 mg/L (d) 200 mg/L
Fig.5 Details of ECN of P110 steel during the crack formation in SAF containing different contentrations of S2- (a) 0 mg/L (b) 50 mg/L (c) 100 mg/L (d) 200 mg/L
Fig.6 Charge (qc), amplitude (Ac), and lifespan (Lc) of current transients related to the crack propagation of P110 steel in SAF with different concentrations of S2-
Fig.7 Polarization curves of P110 steel in the SAF solutions with different concentrations of S2-
Fig.8 EIS of P110 steel in SAF with different concentrations of S2- =(a) 0 mg/L (b) 50 mg/L (c) 100 mg/L (d) 200 mg/L
Fig.9 SEM images of fracture surfaces of P110 steel after SSRT at a lower strain rate of 2×10-6 s-1 (a) in air (b) in SAF solution without S2- (c~e) in SAF solution with 50, 100 and 200 mg/L S2-, respectively
Fig.10 SEM images of the side surfaces of P110 steel after SSRT at a lower strain rate of 2×10-6 s-1 (a) in air (b) in SAF solution without S2- (c~e) in SAF solution with 50, 100 and 200 mg/L S2-, respectively
Fig.11 SEM images of cross-section surfaces of P110 steel after SSRT at a lower strain rate of 2×10-6 s-1 (a) in air (b) in SAF solution without S2- (c~e) in SAF solution with 50, 100 and 200 mg/L S2-, respectively
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