Failure analysis of IEU drill pipe wash out

Many 127.0×9.19 mm IEU G105 drill pipe failures of wash out occurred after 2367 h of pure drilling time and 8726 m of penetration footage. This paper gives a detailed investigation on these failures and a systematic analysis is carried out on service and loading conditions of the drill pipes. Measurement and inspection were performed on configuration dimensions, chemical composition, mechanical performance, metallography, macro-fractography, micro-fractography, and corrosion products. Configuration stresses at the crack positions of the drill pipe were calculated by FEA. Crack extending velocity of the drill pipe material under corrosion medium was also measured. It is thought from test and analysis results that the drill pipe wash out or fracture accidents were premature corrosion fatigue failure accident. The failure courses were as the following: corrosion pits occurred first on the internal surface at the stress concentrating area of the drill pipe, and then fatigue cracks initiated in pit bottoms, and washed out or fractured subsequently as cracks penetrated through the wall thickness of the drill pipe. The reasons of drill pipe wash out were related to configuration, material quality, and load condition of the drill pipe string.