Cracking of 5Cr steel tee-pipe during start-up operation in heavy oil upgrade refinery

The 5Cr T-pipe steel satisfied the chemical composition requirements for ASTM A234 but the tensile strength and hardness were significantly higher than recommended in the standard, which made the pipe steel vulnerable to a hydrogen environment formed by the feed inside of the pipe. The cracking started from the inclusions near the inner surface of the pipe and grew due to the hydrogen effect. Inspection results supporting this argument are explained. And recommendations for preventing similar cracking failures were made.