Erosion-corrosion mechanism and comparison of erosion-corrosion performance of API steels

During the transportation of oil and gas, pipes are exposed to flowing corrosive environment which causes erosion-corrosion. The high degradation rates attributed to this mechanism can create increased challenges to project economy and operation where material integrity, accurate erosion-corrosion rate prediction and long term performance are key concerns. Although the problem caused by the interaction of erosion and corrosion is severe, the mechanism of synergy is still not thoroughly understood because of its complexity. This research focuses on understanding the degradation processes of pipeline steels (API X42, API X70 and API X100) in CO2 containing salt water. The application of cyclic erosion-corrosion allowed the individual contribution of erosion and corrosion components of mass loss to be quantified and mechanisms by which erosion affects corrosion and vice-versa to be identified. The present research also compares the erosion-corrosion performance of different API steels.