Improving the hydrogen embrittlement resistance of quench and tempered high strength steels used as oil country tubular goods with niobium alloying additions

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Oil wells operate in very hostile environments with hydrogen being an extremely deleterious component. This is because only a few parts per million of hydrogen can cause fracture that is not only premature but also unpredictable; this obviously poses a very serious risk to public safety and the environment. Currently, steels require expensive alloying additions and time-consuming processing to provide strong resistance to hydrogen damage. Niobium is a possible alloying element that has the potential to improve the resistance to hydrogen embrittlement (HE), but at considerably lower concentrations compared to the currently used alloying elements, thus affording significant cost reductions. This partnership of this proposal comprises a steel manufacturer, EVRAZ, a government laboratory, CANMETMaterials, and McGill University. The ultimate goal of this partnership is to enable EVRAZ to produce new, higher strength and HE resistant steels to be used in the oil and gas industry. This particular proposal will generate a basic understanding of the effect of alloying and microstructure on HE susceptibility, focussing on niobium additions. The findings will be used to design steels and the corresponding processing (hot rolling and heat treatment) schedules that will be used in industry. These steels and the processes will be investigated in the next alliance grant between the same partners performing the same roles, culminating in industrial steelmaking and processing trials at EVRAZ, and HE susceptibility analyses at McGill. EVRAZ will commercialize the steels using their own internal practices.This work can actually have far reaching effects in many other sectors because HE is a problem anywhere there are load bearing applications. Thus, the considerable of body fundamental knowledge that will be generated in this project can be applied to automotive, energy and civil engineering sectors, all of vital importance to the Canadian economy and infrastructure. Finally, the research will be conducted mainly by graduate students at McGill University who will be trained in advanced steel alloy design, processing and characterisation. These high quality personnel will add greatly to the high tech Canadian work force.