Corrosion-cavitation-erosion: surface morphology study of a carbon steel in a multiphasic saline bath

ABSTRACT During the production of petroleum and gas, the equipments employed for this activity are subjected to synergetic wear mechanisms, such as corrosion, corrosion-cavitation and corrosion-cavitation-erosion. Laboratory experiments has been performed to reproduce some of these mechanisms, however, sometimes the tests is not capable to recreate the complexities caused by hydrodynamic flows, physico-chemical and mechanical non-linearities. The main objective of this work is to evaluate specimens of low carbon steel under laboratory conditions, such as corrosive, cavitative-corrosive (CO2) and corrosive-erosive (CO2 + SiO2) environments. During the tests, the specimens were subjected to a stirring aqueous saline solution (0 and 5.0 m/s) at two levels of temperature, with gas injection (5.0 L/min) and contaminated with by solids particles of SiO2 (2.5% mass). The surface of the specimens subjected to upstream flow (0° in a cylindrical generatrix of the specimen), and downstream flows (180º) were analyzed by profilometry. The measurements of roughness and waviness of all specimens were statistically analyzed at a confidence level of 95% and significant differences observed in some matrices were discussed. The results suggest that the wear mechanisms that act in the upstream generatrix differ from that of specimen downstream.