Evaluation of the precipitation of secondary phases on CO2 environment corrosion resistance of austenitic and super austenitic stainless steels

• Ano de defesa: 2016
• Autor(a) principal: Cardoso, Jorge Luiz
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Palavras-chave em Português: Ciência dos materiais; Resistência à corrosão; Aço inoxidável austenítico
• Link de acesso: http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/18440

Austenitic stainless steels are widely used in several applications including the manufacture of pipelines for the oil and gas industry. This work discusses the corrosion behavior of austenitic and super austenitic stainless steels in CO2-containing environments. The steels used in this work were the AL-6XN PLUS™ (UNS Designation N08367) and 904L (UNS Designation N08904) super austenitic stainless steels. Two conventional austenitic stainless steels, 316L (UNS S31600/ S31603) and 317L (UNS S31703) were also used for comparison purposes. Potentiodynamic polarization measurements were taken in CO2-saturated synthetic oil field formation water, deaerated with nitrogen to simulate some conditions in the pre-salt region. Potentiostatic measurements were also carried out to evaluate the corrosive level of the solution without the presence of CO2. Pressurized experiments using autoclave in CO2-containing environment and in synthetic air environment were also conducted to evaluate the corrosion resistance of the alloys when pressure and temperature act together. Heat treatments at high temperatures between 600 °C and 760°C in different ranges of time were also conducted to evaluate the possible sigma phase precipitation and its effect on the corrosion resistance. The AL-6XN PLUS™ and 904L super austenitic stainless steels showed a good performance in CO2-containing environment. The AL-6XN PLUS™ steel also exhibited the best performance in the pressurized experiments. The conventional 316L and 317L steels showed susceptibility to pitting and crevice corrosion. The results showed that the conventional alloys are not suitable for the use in CO2-containing environment under severe conditions. Pitting potential of the 316L alloy was affected by the pH of the solution in CO2-saturated solution. No sigma phase precipitated in the heat treatments for the range of time used indicating that its precipitation kinetics in austenitic stainless steels is very slow. This result is an advantage when working with austenitic stainless steels for long periods of exposure at high temperatures.