Weldab 13%CR
Weldab 13%CR
Weldab 13%CR
Copyright 2002 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers ISBN 1-880653-58-3 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)
ABSTRACT
Development of a weldable 13Cr martensitic stainless steel for flowline is introduced. Alloy design concept, weldability and corrosion resistance of newly developed 13Cr martensitic stainless steels for CO2 with a small amount of H2S environment are described. The concept of welding is also introduced including welding material and welding process. Super duplex stainless steel is recommended as a welding material for girth welding in order to meet even or overmatching in tensile properties, so that sulfide stress cracking (SSC) susceptibility is minimized and the enough impact toughness is secured even in the heat affected zone without the post weld heat treatment. The effect of environmental factors on SSC and localized corrosion of the weldable 13Cr martensitic stainless steel joint welded by gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) and gas metal arc welding (GMAW) employing super duplex stainless steel as a welding material is discussed.
KEY WORDS:
duplex; SSC
Super 13Cr with the improved resistance to general corrosion, localized corrosion and sulfide stress cracking (SSC) have been proposed for OCTG usage[4-8]. The basic concept is the increase in effective Cr content by the reducing carbon content, the addition of nickel to maintain martensitic phase without ferrite and the addition of Mo to improve the resistance to localized corrosion and SSC. Since the lowering the carbon content causes the reduction of the hardenability of the steels, the possibility of improved weldability has been also expected. Moreover the substantial corrosion resistance and good toughness even in the heat affected zone (HAZ) has also been achieved by modifying the conventional chemistry to Ultra Low Carbon Steel because the increase in the hardness in HAZ is restrained sufficiently. Several modified Super 13Cr steels have been proposed for flow line application in CO2 or CO2/H2S environment[911]. Some of them have been already installed as the sub-sea flow line in the North Sea field[12]. In this paper the development of the weldable Super 13Cr line pipe for CO2+H2S environment is introduced from the viewpoint of the alloy design, weldability and corrosion resistance.
303
1600 1500 Temperature / C 1400 1300 1200 1100 1000 900 800 700
+M7 ++M7
0.2%C - Fe - Cr
L L+
0% 20 L++M23
(
Phase ratio
100%
)
L++ +
Cr / mass%
18
austenite
16
(-loop)
+M23 + M23 + +M23
M23 : M23C6 M7 : M7C3 M3 : M3C
14
12
10
12
14
++M3 +M3
Ni / mass%
+M7+M23
+M7+M3
10
20
Cr / mass%
30
Fig.1. Section diagram at 0.2%C in Fe-Cr-C ternary system of martensitic transformation (Mf) is located at about 150C that is almost critical point not to retain austenite. Therefore the maximum Cr content for transformable steel without ferrite has been determined to be about 13% in 0.2% C steel. Increasing Cr content more than about 13%, the ferrite forms at the solution temperature and remains in the microstructure, then it detracts much from the strength, hot workability and resistance to SSC. Since carbon element has been known to stabilize and expand the austenite region in the phase diagram, Cr and C could be increased simultaneously to maintain the martensitic microstructure. However in that case the effective Cr content is scarcely increased because of decrease in solute Cr by increasing precipitation of M23C6 type carbide where the main constituent of M has been reported to be Cr. Moreover the deterioration of toughness due to the increase in Cr carbide is also reported[13]. Therefore it is meaningless to increase Cr content with increase in C content in order to prevent the formation of ferrite. From the discussions above, the reducing the C content should be adopted to increase effective Cr. In this case ferrite also forms at solution temperature due to a lack of austenite stabilizing element. In order to obtain austenite single phase at solution temperature, some austenite stabilizing element such as Ni, Co, Cu, and Mn should be added or raised in content. Ni is the most suitable element because it has the strongest effect on forming austenite phase compared with other elements[13]. Though some modification could be also available for these alloys, the basic idea for improved steel should be low C, about 13% Cr and addition of Ni. The martensitic phase region at room temperature without ferrite and retained austenite in 0.01%C-Fe-Cr-Mo system after austenitized at This was verified by the 1050C is indicated in Figure 2. microstructure observation of steels containing 12 to 19% Cr, 2 to 14% Ni, and 0 to 3% Mo. Though Ni addition is necessary to stabilize austenite phase and not to form ferrite at solution temperature, too much addition makes the austenite phase excessively stable, then retained austenite remains because the finishing temperature of martensitic transformation falls below room temperature. Too much addition of Cr forms ferrite, therefore only limited narrow region of martensitic single phase is shown. Since Mo has been known to be the ferrite-forming element and lowers the Ms temperature, the addition of Mo also narrows the martensitic single phase region remarkably.
Approach to improved resistance to SSC in low alloy steel (conventional approach) Improvement in susceptibility of hydrogen embrittlement of materials in itself Decrease in impurity element Refinement of grain size Homogenized microstructure Copernican change New approach to improved resistance to SSC in martensitic stainless steel Suppression of corrosion rate Decrease in generated hydrogen Decreased in hydrogen permeation rate Decrease in hydrogen content in steel
304
0.1
Maximun Hardness / Hv
0.01
0.001
300
250
1 2 Mo / mass%
200
0.005
0.01 C / mass%
0.015
1.6 25%NaCl,
150C
3.0MPaCO2,
Fig.6 Effect of carbon content on the maximum hardness in mother metal and the heat affected zone by welding
13Cr-0.2C
Improvement of corrosion resistance by addition of Mo
800
0.01C-4.5Ni-2Mo
8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Effective Cr content / mass% 15
600
constant, it should be concluded that the conventional approach to improving the resistance to SSC by controlling the microstructure is not suitable for the high Cr steels and then the hydrogen permeation rate should be decreased. As shown in Figure 3, the most favourable solution to decrease in hydrogen content in high Cr steels is lowering the hydrogen permeation rate by means of the suppression of the hydrogen generated on the surface by corrosion, which corresponds to lowering the corrosion rate. The SSC resistance of the various low C martensitic stainless steel has been investigated in 5% NaCl solution with 3.0MPa CO2 and 0.001MPa H2S at 25C. The test results of the corrosion rate and SSC susceptibility are shown in Figure 4. The corrosion rate was remarkably reduced with the increase in Mo content. The steel with 2% Mo or higher content did not suffer SSC, while steels with 1% Mo or no addition suffered SSC or pitting in exposed environment.
305
4 3 2
Fig.8 The role of alloying element in weldable super 13Cr for CO2/H2S environment
700
600
500
Temperature / C
Fig.9 Typical yield strength change at elevated temperatures
400
300
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
Figures 9 shows the typical yield strength change of steel from a room temperature to elevated temperatures. These steels show high strength within API X80 grade at a room temperature. Moreover the drop of the yield strength with increase in temperature seems smaller compered with other steels especially with duplex stainless steel. The high yield strength around 100C is favourable to employ these steels for a flowline. The typical impact properties of 13Cr-S is shown in figures 10. Sufficient absorbed energy is shown much below 46C that correspond to the severest specification for the impact properties for flowlines.
200
100
20
Temperature / C
Fig.10 Typical impact properties in 13Cr-S
306
300
200
100
RT
(( ))
1000
1500
Peak temperature / C
Fig.12 Effects of peak temperature and cooling rate on impact properties of simulated HAZ
The Vickers hardness in the simulated HAZ of this steel are shown in Figure 11. The hardness did not increase so much and the effect of peak temperature was not so remarkable. The maximum hardness was about 300 in Vickers number which was observed in the simulated HAZ heated to 1000-1200C. The impact toughness of simulated HAZ of this steel are shown in Figure 12. Enough high impact value over 200 kJ/cm at -30C was obtained in all the HAZ heated up 600 to 1400C and cooled with the cooling rate of 10C /s. Since this steel is alloyed with Titanium, Ti(C,N) precipitation remains as a stabilizer for C and N atom to prevent hardening after martensitic transformation, moreover keeps microstructure fine so that good toughness can be obtained at wide temperature range of the weld thermal cycles.
400
Vickers hardness
300
200
RT
(( ))
1000
1500
Peak temperature / C
Fig.11 Effects of peak temperature and cooling rate on hardness of simulated HAZ
307
300
gas tungsten arc welding(GTAW) process and gas metal arc welding(GMAW) process. Pipe consisting of Steel 13Cr-S used for
the simulated HAZ test was employed. The welding consumable of X80 grade super duplex stainless steel with the diameter of 1.2 mm was employed for the both of GTAW and GMAW. The weld joining test with GTAW in the whole joint was conducted to clarify the allowable range of welding variable of weld heat input and inter-pass temperature. The welding was done with the various conditions of weld heat input of 1.1 to 2.2 kJ/mm and inter-pass temperature of 50 to 400C using the U shape bevel. The joint consisted of 6, 8, 14 passes for the heat input of 2.2, 1.6 and 1.1 respectively. The post weld heat treatment was not done except for one joint. Just one joint of those was PWHT treated at 650C for 5min to confirm the allowance of short duration PWHT. The welded joints obtained were evaluated in terms of mechanical properties by tensile, bending, Charpy impact and hardness test and corrosion property by SSC test. The mechanical tests were done according to the ASME Sec. IX. The SSC test was carried out using the four points bending test specimen with a notch at the fusion boundary of weldment. The test was conducted in the 5%NaCl solution with 0.001MPa H2S and 0.3MPa CO2 in partial pressure at 25C and applying stress of 100% yield stress of base metal for 336 hours. The weld joining test using GMAW accompanied with GTAW in just root pass was conducted to clarify the applicability of this welding process. The welding consisted of four layers and was done with the GMA welding condition of 140A in welding current, 27V in welding voltage and welding speed in 140mm/min using V shape bevel. In order to achieve prevention of porosity the shielding gas consisting 20% nitrogen and 80% argon was employed. The welded joints were evaluated without PWHT in the same terms as the above GTAW. The tensile and bending test results of the GTAW joints in the various welding conditions were summarized in Table 4. In tensile test the fractured portions of all the joints were at the base metal with sufficient high tensile strength. And any of the joints had no defects in the bending test. The effects of weld heat input and inter-pass temperature on the fracture toughness, which are Charpy impact test at -30C, are shown in Figures 13 and 14. The fracture toughness of weld metal and fusion line was sufficiently high in all the test conditions. All the Charpy impact values were higher than 150kJ/cm2 at the fusion line as well as at the weld metal. The impact value was slightly lowered by
200
100
300
200
100
: Weld metal : Fusion line
100
200
300
400
Interpass temperature / C
Fig.14 Effects of inter-pass temperature on impact value
308
PWHT but the value remained over 130 kJ/cm2. The results of SSC test of 13Cr-S GTAW joints in the various welding conditions were summarized in Table 5. SSC were not observed in any joints as results of inspection in the cross section using the microscope in the magnification of 500. The tensile and bending test results of the GMAW joints have already been summarized in Table 4 together with GTAW. In tensile test the fractured occurred at the base metal with sufficient high tensile strength. And any of the joints had no defects in the bending test. Finally the joints had no SSC in the same condition as GTAW joints shown in Table 5. From these results it was clarified that 13Cr-S line pipe has superior mechanical properties and SSC resistance in the weldment in all the welding condition range tested
400
Weld metal
Vickers hardness
300
200
CONCLUSION
The Alloy design of newly developed weldable Super 13Cr martensitic stainless steels for CO2+H2S environment was discussed. The results are summarised as follows: (1) The lowering C content less than 0.015% improves the toughness and the resistance to SSC by reducing the maximum hardness in the HAZ. (2) The suitable addition of Ti stabilizes and lowers the tensile strength, moreover it refines the microstructure in the HAZ. (3)Mo was clarified to be the very important element to improve. both the resistance to SSC and localised corrosion. (4) Weldable super 13Cr stainless steels 13Cr-S: ultra low-C (less than 0.015%) -12Cr-6Ni-2.5Mo-Ti for CO2 environment with a little amount of H2S was developed. (5)The welded joints of 13Cr-S by GTAW or GMAW using a super duplex welding material have stable performance such as tensile strength, fracture toughness and SSC resistance in the sufficiently wide range of welding conditions of 1.1 to 2.2 in heat input and up to 400C in inter-pass temperature.
10mm
100
distance
Fig.15 Hardness distribution in welded joint with 1.6kJ/mm in heat input and 50C in inter-pass temperature [5] Hashizume,S., Takaoka,T., Minami,Y., Ishizawa,Y. and Yamada,T., Corrosion/91, Paper No.28, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1991 [6] Ueda,M., Kushida,T., Kondo,K. and Kudo,T., Corrosion/92, Paper No.55, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1992 [7] Asahi,A., Hara,T., Kawakami,A. and Takahashi,T., Corrosion/95, Paper No.79, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1995 [8] Barteri,M., DeCristofaro,N., Scoppio,L., Cumino,G. and Della Pina,G., Corrosion/95, Paper No.76, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1995 [9] Ueda,M., Amaya,H., Kondo,K., Ogawa,K. and Mori,T., Corrosion/96, Paper No.58, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1996 [10] Miyata,Y., Kimura,M., Koseki,T., Toyooka,T. and Murase,F., Corrosion/97, Paper No.19, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1997 [11] Popperling,R., Niederhoff,K.A., Fliethman,J. and Keller,M., Corrosion/97, Paper No.38, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1997 [12] Enerhang,J., Eliassen,S.L. and Kvaale,P.E., Corrosion/97, Paper No.38, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1997 [13] Irvine,K.J., Crowe,D.J. and Pickering,F.B., Journal of The Iron and Steel Institute, August, 1960, pp386 [14] Gibala,R. and Hehemann,R.F., Hydrogen Embrittlement and Stress Corrosion Cracking, American Society for Metals 1984 [15] Kushida,T. and Kudo,T., Corrosion Engineering 41,799-809(1992) [16] Hirata,H., Amaya,H. and Komizo,Y., Proc. of OMAE 1997, Vol 3, p101 [17] Okamoto,H., Ueda,M. and Ogawa,K., Sumitomo Search, No54, October, 1993,p1
REFERENCES [1] Biagiotti,S.F.Jr.,P.E. and Reichman,J.S., Corrosion/95, Paper No.81, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1995 [2] Kermani,M.B., Weighhill,G., Pendlington,T. and Elliot,G., Corrosion/95, Paper No.96, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1995 [3] Baudoin,D.A., Barbin,D.K. and Skogsberg,J., Corrosion/95, Paper No.639, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1995 [4] Tamaki,A., Corrosion/89, Paper No.469, NACE International, Houston, Texas, 1989
309