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

油井在非常恶劣的环境中作业，氢气是一种极其有害的成分。这是因为只有百万分之几的氢气就会导致断裂，这不仅是过早的，而且是不可预测的；这显然对公共安全和环境构成了非常严重的风险。目前，钢需要昂贵的合金添加和耗时的加工，以提供强大的抗氢损伤。铌是一种可能的合金元素，它有可能提高抗氢脆（HE）的能力，但与目前使用的合金元素相比，铌的浓度要低得多，从而大大降低了成本。该提案的合作伙伴包括钢铁制造商EVRAZ、政府实验室、CANMETMaterials和麦吉尔大学。此次合作的最终目标是使EVRAZ能够生产出用于石油和天然气行业的新型、更高强度和耐高温钢。这一特殊的提议将产生对合金和微观结构对HE敏感性的影响的基本理解，重点是铌的添加。研究结果将用于设计钢和相应的加工（热轧和热处理）计划，将在工业中使用。这些钢材和工艺将在下一个联盟拨款中进行研究，由同样的合作伙伴执行相同的角色，最终在EVRAZ进行工业炼钢和加工试验，并在麦吉尔进行HE敏感性分析。EVRAZ将利用自己的内部实践将钢材商业化。这项工作实际上可以在许多其他部门产生深远的影响，因为HE是任何有承重应用的问题。因此，在这个项目中产生的大量身体基础知识可以应用于汽车、能源和土木工程领域，这些领域对加拿大的经济和基础设施都至关重要。最后，研究将主要由麦吉尔大学的研究生进行，他们将接受先进钢合金设计、加工和表征方面的培训。这些高素质的人才将大大增加加拿大的高科技劳动力。

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.