Evaluation of the Susceptibility of Duplex Stainless Steel 2205 to Hydrogen Assisted Cracking in REAC Systems

Author(s):  
Mei He ◽  
John Lippold ◽  
Boian Alexandrov ◽  
Jorge Penso

Duplex stainless steel (DSS) is one material choice to fabricate the reactor effluent air cooler (REAC) of hydrocracker units in order to improve the performance and service lifetime of these units. Unfortunately, several failures from around the world have been reported in REAC units constructed of DSS, some within five years of service. Based on failure analysis reports, the failures were generally associated with welded joints and were caused by crevice/pitting corrosion and stress corrosion cracking. Given the condition of hydrogen-rich environment, high-pressure process fluid, and service temperature, this type of cracking is most likely a form of hydrogen assisted cracking (HAC). It is highly influenced by phase balance (ferrite/austenite) after welding and welding procedures, with high levels of ferrite in the weld metal or HAZ increasing the susceptibility to HAC. In this study, different weld metal phase balances were prepared by autogenous gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). The delayed hydrogen cracking test (DHCT) was used to evaluate the effects of the weld phase balance on the susceptibility to HAC in DSS 2205 welds. Using this approach, weld metal ferrite levels on the order of 90 vol% ferrite led to very rapid failure, while reducing the ferrite level to approximately 60 vol% greatly increased resistance to HAC.

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (01n03) ◽  
pp. 1940037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Qi ◽  
Ruifeng Li ◽  
Guangjin Wang ◽  
Zhe Sun

Joining of super duplex stainless steel (SDSS) is still a challenge, in particular, the need to control the phase balance in the weld metal. In this paper, laser-MIG hybrid welding process was used to join SAF 2507 SDSS plates. The effects of welding parameters on weld appearance, microstructure and phase distribution and mechanical properties were studied systematically. Results showed that the arc/laser hybrid effect was more significant when the arc led the laser with 2 mm distance. It was indicated that arc current mainly affected the weld width while laser power mainly affected weld penetration depth. The composition and microstructure varied a lot at different positions in the weld due to the differences in peak temperature and cooling rate. From top to root, the content of ferrite phase increased and austenite phase decreased. With optimized welding parameters, due to the increase of heat input and the introduction of welding wire, the ferrite/austenite phase balance in the weld metal was obtained. Mechanical property tests showed that the joints exhibited higher tensile strength but lower toughness compared to base metal.


Author(s):  
Changqing Ye ◽  
Weiguo Zhai ◽  
Guangyao Lu ◽  
Qingsong Liu ◽  
Liang Ni ◽  
...  

In this paper, shielded metal arc welding on the dissimilar joint between 2205 duplex stainless steel and composite bimetallic plates (304 L stainless steel/10CrNi3MoV steel) with a filler metal E2209 was performed. Furthermore, the microstructure, phase, mechanical properties and intergranular corrosion resistance of the joints were investigated and element distributions of the interfaces were characterized. The results show that austenite transformed to ferrite under the influence of welding thermal cycle, and then a large amount of ferrite appeared in heat affected zone (HAZ) of 2205 duplex stainless steel. Coarse bainite grains were formed in HAZ of the 10CrNi3MoV steel near the fusion line with high temperature welding thermal cycle. Fine granular bainite was also generated in HAZ of 10CrNi3MoV steel due to the relatively short exposure time to the active temperature of grain growth. Local peak temperature near the base 10CrNi3MoV steel was still high enough to recrystallize the 10CrNi3MoV steel to form partial-recrystallization HAZ due to phase change. The filler metal was compatible with the three kinds of base materials. The thickness of the elemental diffusion interfaces layers was about 100 µm. The maximum microhardness value was obtained in the HAZ of 2205 duplex stainless steel (287 ± 14 HV), and the minimum one appeared in HAZ of SS304L (213 ± 5 HV). The maximum tensile strength of the welded joint was about 670 ± 6 MPa, and the tensile specimens fractured in ductile at matrix of the composite bimetallic plates. The impact energy of the weld metal and HAZ of the 10CrNi3MoV steel tested at –20 °C were 274 ± 6 J and 308 ± 5 J, respectively. Moreover, the intergranular corrosion resistance of the weldment including 304 L stainless steel, weld metal, HAZs and 2205 duplex stainless steel was in good agreement with the functional design requirements of materials corrosion resistance.


Author(s):  
Bai An ◽  
Takashi Iijima ◽  
Chris San Marchi ◽  
Brian Somerday

Understanding the micromechanisms of hydrogen-assisted fracture in multiphase metals is of great scientific and engineering importance. By using a combination of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and magnetic force microscopy (MFM), the micromorphology of fracture surface and microcrack formation in hydrogen-precharged super duplex stainless steel 2507 are characterized from microscale to nanoscale. The results reveal that the fracture surfaces consist of quasi-brittle facets with riverlike patterns at the microscale, which exhibit rough irregular patterns or remarkable quasi-periodic corrugation patterns at the nanoscale that can be correlated with highly localized plastic deformation. The microcracks preferentially initiate and propagate in ferrite phase and are stopped or deflected by the boundaries of the austenite phase. The hydrogen-assisted cracking mechanisms in super duplex stainless steel are discussed according to the experimental results and hydrogen-enhanced localized plasticity theory.


CORROSION ◽  
10.5006/3746 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Vargas ◽  
Apolinar Albiter-Hernandez ◽  
Marco Dominguez Aguilar ◽  
Gerardo Altamirano-Guerrero ◽  
Cuahtemoc Maldonado

The effect of weld passes and single V grove designs, on the corrosion resistance of dissimilar welds of a low alloy steel and a super-duplex stainless steel, was studied in synthetic brine. Welds were manufactured in argon by gas tungsten arc (GTA) technique and joined by a high nickel wire of super-duplex stainless steel. Samples of weld regions were characterized by composition scans, electrochemical measurements, micro-hardness and scanning electron microscopy. In X52/ER2594, a transition region (TR) of grain boundaries type II and a band of martensite were formed. The base metal of X52 underwent the highest corrosion rate and localized corrosion occurred in the heat affected zone. Interface ER2594/25Cr7Ni and 25Cr7Ni showed the presence of pitting near intermetallics.


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