Fracture Toughness Assessment of the Susceptibility for Sulfide Stress Corrosion Cracking in High Strength Carbon and Low Alloy Steels: A review

摘要

High strength carbon steels typically used as oil country tubular goods can be susceptible to sulfide stress corrosion cracking (SSC) when in service in environments that contain H_2S. In the last 25 years, linear-elastic fracture mechanics has been used to understand both the mechanistic aspects of this form of cracking and to quantify the susceptibility to SSC of different OCTG steel grades. This paper presents a review on the evolution of the Double Cantilever Method (DCB) as a standard practice to assess the threshold stress intensity parameter (K_(ISSC)), evaluating the capabilities and limitations of this testing method to describe the conditions associated with crack propagation. The review study indicates that new testing methods based on the energy required for crack propagation such as J_(Ic) might be required to overcome the limitations of the static conditions implied in the K_(Ic) evaluation approach, which limited to linear fracture mechanics, cannot address the dynamic nature of the crack propagation and its interaction with the aggressive environment.