You are on page 1of 10

Engineering Failure Analysis 71 (2017) 1–10

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Engineering Failure Analysis


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Failure analysis of a carbon steel pipeline exposed to wet


hydrogen sulfide environment
Shugen Xu a,⁎, Shengjun Huang a, Deguo Guo b, Yongjie Zhao c, Mingda Song d
a
College of Chemical Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Huadong, Qingdao 266580, China
b
China Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering Corp., Beijing 100012, China
c
Shanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group Pipeline Company, Yanan 716099, China
d
Shandong Special Equipment Inspection and Research Academy, Jinan 250013, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) is one of the most common failure phenomena in the wet hydrogen
Received 18 July 2016 sulfide environment. In this paper, the fracture failure of a fuel gas pipeline during operation has
Received in revised form 25 September 2016 been analyzed. Through service environmental investigation, crack morphology detection, and
Accepted 1 November 2016
stress analysis of fuel gas pipeline, the fracture has the morphology and characteristic of wet hydro-
Available online 3 November 2016
gen sulfide SCC in the welding joint between pipeline and flange. The analysis shows that the abnor-
mal martensitic microstructure in the pipeline has provided the advantage for SCC.
Keywords: © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Wet hydrogen sulfide
Welding residual stress
Stress corrosion cracking
Fuel gas pipeline

1. Introduction

Pipelines have been widely used to increase continuity of production, transport efficiency and reduce costs in process indus-
try as well as in petrochemical industry [1–3]. But the petrochemical industry contains a variety of corrosive environment, and
the most common and serious failure of pipe is stress corrosion crack caused by hydrogen sulfide [4,5]. Especially, a welding
joint is susceptible to wet H2S environment [6,7]. The main characteristics of SCC are the multi-source and the bifurcation of
the intergranular or transgranular (or both) crack. In general, the crack orientation is perpendicular to the maximum principal
stress.
The main factors that affect the SCC of the material are the external operating environment and the internal metallurgy and
stress state of the components. The former is mainly affected by media, temperature, pressure and other factors, and the latter is
mainly affected by the material elements, microstructure, heat treatment and other factors [8–11]. The wet hydrogen sulfide
SCC has been paid more attention since 1950s. However, stress corrosion caused by wet hydrogen sulfide environment occurred
from time to time.
The investigation of the pipe operating condition shows that the medium in the pipeline contains wet hydrogen sulfide, and
the residual stress is high. In the present paper, the characteristics of SCC of wet hydrogen sulfide in pipeline weld are demon-
strated by analyzing medium environment, testing chemical composition, detecting fracture and simulating residual stress in
the welded joints. The results reveal that the synergistic effect of wet H 2 S and high residual stress is the main factor that
leads to the SCC.

⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: xsg123@163.com (S. Xu).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2016.11.001
1350-6307/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 S. Xu et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 71 (2017) 1–10

Fig. 1. Diagram of fuel gas pipeline.

Table 1
Composition of dry gas (volume percentage).

Element H2 C1 C2 C3 Propylene C4 C5 H2S

Content 42 28.4 20.6 4.8 0.7 2.9 0.5 0.1

2. Description

The leakage location of fuel gas pipeline in reforming unit is shown in Fig. 1. The leakage was caused by the cracking of the
pipe at the cross line between the fuel gas pipeline and the hot water gas pipeline.
The fuel gas pipe was made of 20 steel, and the flange was made of 1Cr5Mo. The internal pressure of the pipeline is fluctuated
between 0.5–0.77 MPa, and the operating temperature of the fuel gas is 18.64 °C. The main composition of dry gas in the pipeline
is methane, which also contains a small amount of H2S and condensed water. The specific composition is shown in Table 1.

3. Experimental analysis

3.1. Macroscopic fracture detection

The shear-lip is very narrow as shown in Fig. 2. When the crack is extended to the near surface, the shear stress is the leading
factor and causes shear tearing. The outer surface of the fracture has obvious shear-lip, and the shear-lip is very thin. Shear-lip
width reflects the material toughness, tear rate as well as the thickness of the component. Therefore, it can preliminary viewed
that toughness of the weld joint is poor, which may be caused by missing or improper stress relief annealing.

(a) Fracture (b) Local amplification

Fig. 2. Macro appearance of fracture surface.


S. Xu et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 71 (2017) 1–10 3

Table 2
Chemical composition of flange (wt.%).

Element C Si Mn P S Cr Mo Ni

GBT 1221-1992 1Cr5Mo ≤0.15 ≤0.50 ≤0.60 ≤0.035 ≤0.020 4.00–6.00 0.45–0.60 ≤0.60
NB/T 47008-2010 20# 0.17–0.23 0.15–0.40 0.60–1.00 ≤0.030 ≤0.020 ≤0.25 – ≤0.25
Measured 0.204 0.249 0.537 0.029 0.016 0.110 0.014 0.015

The fracture surface cracked along the pipeline and the flange weld joint, which is shown in Fig. 2. The fracture surface shows
low stress brittle fracture, and the macroscopic characteristics are as follows.

• The fracture surface is smooth, and the outer wall is shear-lip.


• There was no obvious plastic deformation in the whole fracture zone;
• Fracture without obvious metal luster, showing a dark grey;
• Radiation texture display crack propagation from the inner wall to the outer wall.

3.2. Chemical composition

Spectral analysis for material composition of flange is shown in Table 2. According to the manufacture specification, the flange
might be made of 1Cr5Mo (GB/T 1221-1992 Heat-resisting steel bar) [12]. The results of chemical composition analysis show that
the content of Cr and Mo in chemical composition was too low, while the content of C was high. So the flange material is not

(a) Ferrite+widmanstatten (b) Ferrite+widmanstatten

Fig. 3. Metallurgical structure of flange.

(a) Acicular ferrite (b) Acicular ferrite

Fig. 4. Metallurgical structure of weld seam.


4 S. Xu et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 71 (2017) 1–10

(a) Without aqua regia etching (b) Etched by aqua regia

Fig. 5. Metallurgical structure of pipeline side (lath martensite).

1Cr5Mo. According to the chemical composition control NB/T 47008-2010 Carbon and alloy steel forgings for pressure equipment
[13], the flange was made of 20 steel.

3.3. Metallographic analysis

The weld seam and flange were cut and prepared for the metallurgical examination. Metallurgical structure of flange is
ferrite + widmanstatten (Fig. 3), weld seam is acicular ferrite (Fig. 4). The Chemical composition analysis results show that the
flange material is 20 steel, and the normalized microstructure of 20 steel is ferrite + pearlite. Therefore, the microstructure of
the flange is abnormal.
There is a bright layer (Fig. 5(a)) on the weld pipe side after metallographic structure of weld seam etched by 4% HNO3 alcohol
solution. It is found that the microstructure of the bright layer, etched by aqua regia, is lath martensite (Fig. 5(b)). The lath mar-
tensite is a low carbon martensite. As the width of the lath is narrow, the martensite group is presented under the optical micro-
scope, shown in Fig. 5(b). As low carbon steel, the 20 steel pipe should be used under normalizing heat treatment, and the
microstructure should be ferrite + pearlite. The Martensite is formed by the transformation of the supercooled austenite, after
rapid cooling under Mf. Therefore, the presence of martensite reflects that the heat treatment of the pipe is abnormal.
In the martensitic microstructure of the white bright layer, the dendrite intergranular cracks (Fig. 6) and the transgranular
cracks were found (Fig. 7). The microstructure of retained austenite that was not completely transformed into martensite can
be observed in Fig. 6(b). The intergranular cracks (Fig. 6) morphology show wide branch and a shape of rock candies cracking
under the optical microscope. The transgranular cracks (Fig. 7) show a shape of river pattern. The crack morphology is character-
ized by typical SCC.

(a) Without aqua regia etching (b) Etched by aqua regia

Fig. 6. Intergranular cracks.


S. Xu et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 71 (2017) 1–10 5

(a) Without aqua regia etching (b) Etched by aqua regia

Fig. 7. Transgranular cracks.

3.4. Electron microscope analysis

Sampling positions are shown in Fig. 8. The mud-like pattern (Fig. 9) was observed in the SEM photo before cleaning. After
ultrasonic cleaning, the secondary cracks morphology on fracture surface is shown in Fig. 10. SEM photos of fracture show sub-
stantially no plastic deformation, and secondary cracks can be observed everywhere.

3.5. Analysis of corrosion product

Corrosion product Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) found Cl, S, Na, K, Ca, and other elements (Fig. 11 and Table 3). S
element is widely distributed and its content is high in the corrosion products, the weight between 1% and 8%. Cl element is
also high content in the corrosion products.
SEM and EDS analysis revealed that the fracture has obvious characteristics of SCC. The fracture surface is rich in sulfur con-
tent, and the operation environment contains hydrogen sulfide and compensated water. From fracture characteristics of SEM and
EDS analysis, it can be concluded that the fracture is the SCC in wet hydrogen sulfide environment.

4. Analysis of influencing factors of SCC

4.1. Stress factor

4.1.1. Finite element model


A 2D axi-symmetric of the pipe and the flange welding model was established in ABAQUS6.12. The Finite Element meshing of
welded joint is shown in Fig. 12. The hoop direction is the direction of the welding, and the X and Y axis are respectively corre-
sponding to the radial direction (thickness direction) and the axial direction of the welding component. The flange seal surface is
applied for X = 0, Y = 0 constraints, and the upper surface of the pipe is applied for the X-axis symmetry constraint.

(a) Sample 1 (b) Sample 2

Fig. 8. Sampling position on the fracture.


6 S. Xu et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 71 (2017) 1–10

Fig. 9. The mud-like pattern (before cleaning).

4.1.2. Welding residual stress


The welding residual stress is solved by the sequential coupling method of Abaqus. According to the geometric model, the
stress S22 along the Y-axis is the welding axial stress. The stress S11 along the X-axis direction is the welding radial stress (the
thickness direction stress), and the stress S33 is welded hoop stress. The residual radial stress, axial stress and hoop stress con-
tours are shown in Fig. 13(a), (b) and (c), respectively. The residual stress in the thickness direction is very small. The peak
axial tensile stress in the inner surface is 226 MPa, and the peak hoop tensile stress is 273 MPa. The axial stress and hoop stress
are concentrated on the inner wall of the weld joint. The tensile stress at the inner wall of welded joint is very large, which is a
favorable factor for the SCC.
The distribution of residual radial stress, axial stress and hoop stress along the inner wall is shown in Fig. 14. 0–62 mm for the flange
(0 corresponding to the flange seal surface), 65 mm–160 mm for the pipeline, between the flange and the pipe is the weld area. The re-
sidual axial and hoop stress have the same trend. The closer to the pipe side, the higher the axial stress will be in the weld joint.
Stress corrosion crack is susceptible to welding residual stress, and weld joint resistless to wet hydrogen sulfide environment.
Therefore, it is very important to relieve residual stress at weld joint. Stress relieving annealing is most effective way to relieve
residual stress. The basic method of relieving residual stress is improving welding process to avoid formation of residual stress.

4.1.3. Operating stress


The operating stress was solved after the inner pressure is applied to weldment. The operating axial stress and hoop stress are
shown in Fig. 15(a) and (b). The peak axial tensile stress in the inner surface is 153.8 MPa, and the peak hoop tensile stress is
72.6 MPa. The value of axial tensile stress near the welding inner wall is 70–90 MPa. The peak hoop tensile stress appears at
HAZ on the side of pipe.

Fig. 10. Secondary cracks (after cleaning).


S. Xu et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 71 (2017) 1–10 7

(a) SEM fractograph of corrosion products (b) EDS result of corrosion products (wt.%)

Fig. 11. Corrosion products.

The welding residual stress simulation results show that welding residual stress value is very high, but the tensile stress is re-
duced under operating state. The stress value (axial stress and hoop stress) on the weld joint is reduced by about 100 MPa. The
residual stress is the stress caused by cooling shrinkage of the welding joint, and the inner pressure leads to tensile stress. There-
fore, the direction of the two stresses is roughly opposite, superposition effects will appear.

Table 3
Chemical composition of corrosion products using EDS (wt.%).

Element C O Si S Cl Na Al

Content 11.6 17.92 3.56 0.93 0.48 0.70 0.53

Fig. 12. Finite element mesh of the model.


8 S. Xu et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 71 (2017) 1–10

(a) Radial stress (S11) (b) Axial stress (S22) (c) Hoop stress (S33)

Fig. 13. Residual stress contours.

4.2. Environmental factor

The component works in the wet hydrogen sulfide environment, and the H2S concentration is 1000 μL/L (Table 1). Therefore,
there is a SCC environment in the operating environment of the component [14].

5. Results and discussion

The stress analysis shows that the fracture crack position of the component is not the position of the maximum tensile stress,
but the tensile stress is relatively large. This is because the resistance ability of different microstructure to hydrogen sulfide stress
corrosion is inconsistent. Literatures [15,16] showed that the microstructure of the acicular ferrite was superior to the stress cor-
rosion resistance, while the martensite microstructure was very limited. SCC is decided by two aspects: internal metallurgy, stress
state, and external operating environment. The microstructure of weld fusion zone is acicular ferrite, the flange microstructure is
ferrite + widmanstatten, and the microstructure of pipe is lath martensite. The SCC occurs at HAZ near the pipe where the stress
is large and the microstructure is weak to hydrogen sulfide corrosion.
Combined with the operating environment, the crack appearance, and the stress state of the component, the fracture failure is
judged to be the SCC caused by wet hydrogen sulfide. The existence of chloride may promote the process of SCC. When the crack
in the weld is expanded to a certain critical value, a low stress brittle overload fracture accident occurred.

Radial stress
300 Axial stress
Hoop stress

200

100
Stress(MPa)

-100

-200

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160


Distance(mm)

Fig. 14. The residual stress along the inner wall.


S. Xu et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 71 (2017) 1–10 9

(a) Axial stress

(b) Hoop stress


Fig. 15. Operating axial stress (a) and hoop stress (b).

6. Conclusions

From the analysis above, the following conclusions can be drawn:


(1) The reason for the fracture of fuel gas pipeline is wet hydrogen sulfide SCC.
(2) The presence of the wet hydrogen sulfide stress corrosion environment in the weld is a medium factor of pipeline fracture.
(3) The high tensile stress in the weld is the stress factor of SCC.
(4) The lath martensite in pipe is abnormal, which provided convenience for the SCC.

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to express their gratitude for the financial support by National Natural Science Foundation of China
(51404284), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (15CX05011A), and Applied Fundamental Research Funds
of Qingdao City (15-9-1-95-jch).
10 S. Xu et al. / Engineering Failure Analysis 71 (2017) 1–10

References

[1] W. Zheng, M. Elboujdaini, R.W. Revie, 19 - stress corrosion cracking in pipelines, Woodhead Publishing Series in Metals and Surface Engineering, Woodhead
Publishing 2011, pp. 749–771 (Stress Corrosion Cracking, ISBN 9781845696733).
[2] E. Sadeghi Meresht, T. Shahrabi Farahani, J. Neshati, Failure analysis of stress corrosion cracking occurred in a gas transmission steel pipeline, Eng. Fail. Anal. 18
(3) (April 2011) 963–970 (ISSN 1350-6307).
[3] O.I. Zvirko, S.F. Savula, V.M. Tsependa, G. Gabetta, et al., Stress corrosion cracking of gas pipeline steels of different strength, Procedia Struct. Integr. 2 (2016)
509–516 (ISSN 2452-3216).
[4] F. Nasirpouri, H. Alizadeh, M. Hosseingholizadeh, Failure analysis of a carbon steel screw under the service in the presence of hydrogen sulphide, Eng. Fail. Anal.
18 (8) (December 2011) 2316–2323 (ISSN 1350-6307).
[5] W. Zhao, Y. Zou, K. Matsuda, Z. Zou, Corrosion behavior of reheated CGHAZ of X80 pipeline steel in H2S-containing environments, Mater. Des. 99 (5 June 2016)
44–56 (ISSN 0264-1275).
[6] J.-Q. Tang, J.-M. Gong, X.-C. Zhang, T. Shan-Tung, Comparison on the cracking susceptibility of different low alloy steel weldments exposed to the environment
containing wet H2S, Eng. Fail. Anal. 13 (7) (October 2006) 1057–1064 (ISSN 1350-6307).
[7] Y.D. Han, H.Y. Jing, L.Y. Xu, Welding heat input effect on the hydrogen permeation in the X80 steel welded joints, Mater. Chem. Phys. 132 (2012) 216–222.
[8] M. Elboujdaini, R.W. Revie, Metallurgical factors in stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and hydrogen-induced cracking (HIC), J. Solid State Electrochem. 13 (2009)
1091–1099.
[9] F. Huang, X.G. Li, J. Liu, Y.M. Qu, et al., Hydrogen-induced cracking susceptibility and hydrogen trapping efficiency of different microstructure X80 pipeline steel,
J. Mater. Sci. 46 (2011) 715–722.
[10] J.L. Albarran, L. Martinez, H.F. Lopez, Effect of heat treatment on the stress corrosion resistance of a microalloyed pipeline steel, Corros. Sci. 41 (1999) 1037–1049.
[11] C. Barbosa, S.M.C. de Souza, R.O. Centeno, I.C. Abud, et al., Failure analysis of pipes used in a hydrodesulfuration system of a petrochemical plant, Eng. Fail. Anal. 13
(2006) 1076–1091.
[12] The standard of People's Republic of China, GB/T 1221-2007 Heat-resisting Steel Bar, 2007 (in Chinese).
[13] The Standard of People's Republic of China, NB/T 47008-2010 Carbon and Alloy Steel Forgings for Pressure Equipment, 2010 (in Chinese).
[14] NACE Standard MR0103-2003, Item No. 21305 “Material Resistant to Sulfide Stress Cracking in Corrosive Petroleum Refining Environments”. 2003.
[15] M.-C. Zhao, M. Liu, A. Atrens, Y.-Y. Shan, et al., Effect of applied stress and microstructure on sulfide stress cracking resistance of pipeline steels subject to hydro-
gen sulfide, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 478 (1–2) (15 April 2008) 43–47 (ISSN 0921-5093).
[16] E. Ramírez, J.G. González-Rodriguez, A. Torres-Islas, B. Campillo, et al., Effect of microstructure on the sulphide stress cracking susceptibility of a high strength
pipeline steel, Corros. Sci. 50 (2008) 3534–3541.

You might also like