Stress corrosion cracking of gas pipelines – Effect of surface roughness, orientations and flattening

Abstract The primary corrosion mitigation of the external surface of high pressure steel gas pipelines is protective coatings with secondary protection usually by cathodic protection. Adhesion and resistance to cathodic disbondment of the coating is critical for its integrity and grit blasting is an important process in achieving this adhesion. The effect of surface roughness, from grit blasting, on the intergranular stress corrosion cracking resistance of X70 gas pipelines was investigated using slow strain rate testing in carbonate/bicarbonate solution at 75 °C. The effect of orientation of test pieces with respect to the axial direction of pipes was also investigated. Time to failure ratios decreased with increasing surface roughness indicating reduced stress corrosion cracking resistance. The reduced resistance to cracking with increasing roughness would be predominantly associated with stress concentration effects related to the surface roughness resulting from the grit blasting. Crack concentration decreased with increasing roughness, which is likely to be associated with the concentration of surface damage from the grit blasting using varying sized grit. As formed pipe surfaces, with no grit blasting, resulted in some of the lowest time to failure ratios and hence some of the lowest resistances to stress corrosion cracking. These also showed some of the deepest cracks. The influence of roughness and residual stresses on threshold stress is currently being investigated. Time to failure ratios indicated a greater resistance to stress corrosion cracks for circumferentially orientated test pieces compared to those longitudinally orientated. Whilst further testing would be required for confirmation, the current results suggest that flattening the test pieces had only a minor, if any, effect on stress corrosion cracking susceptibility as measured by slow strain rate testing to fracture.