Erosion-corrosion and its mitigation on the internal surface of the expansion segment of N80 steel tube

We investigated erosion-corrosion (E-C) and its mitigation on the internal surface of the expansion segment of N80 steel tube in a loop system using array electrode technique, weight-loss measurement, computational-fluid-dynamics simulation, and surface characterization techniques. The results show that high E-C rates can occur at locations where there is a high flow velocity and/or a strong impact from sand particles, which results in different E-C rates at various locations. Consequently, it can be expected that localized corrosion often occurs in such segments. The E-C rate at each location in the expansion segment can be significantly mitigated with an imidazoline derivative inhibitor, as the resulting inhibitor layer significantly impedes the electrochemical reaction rate. However, we found that this inhibitor layer could not effectively reduce the difference in the erosion rates at different locations on the internal surface of the expansion segment. This means that localized corrosion can still occur at the expansion segment despite the presence of the inhibitor.

Automated summary

This study found that high E-C rates mainly occur in locations with high flow velocity or strong impacts from sand particles, leading to localized corrosion in the expansion segment. The inhibitor can significantly reduce the E-C rate, but cannot reduce the difference in erosion rates at different locations on the internal surface of the expansion segment.