A preliminary investigation of the effects of environmentally assisted cracking on natural gas transmission pipelines
Abstract
Concepts for the development of a model to predict natural gas transmission
pipeline lifetime in a corrosive environment are constructed. Primarily, the effects of
environmentally assisted cracking (EAC) are explored. Tensile test specimens from a
sample of API 5L X-52 pipeline were tested in a simulated groundwater solution and
subsequently analyzed. The results suggested that the simulated environment ultimately
reduced the ductility of the test specimens; however, no evidence of ??classical?? stress
corrosion crack morphology was discovered. However, corrosion pits up to 0.75 mm
(0.03 in) were revealed during metallographic analysis. A Marin factor analogy and an
energy method concept are suggested and explored. Ultimately, the test data set was too
small for the results to be of any directly applicable significance.
Citation
Curbo, Jason Wayne (2005). A preliminary investigation of the effects of environmentally assisted cracking on natural gas transmission pipelines. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /2357.