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Influence of gaseous components and pressures on hydrogen embrittlement of natural gas pipeline

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Abstract

Hydrogen usually penetrates metals through defects such as dislocations, vacancies, and crystalline imperfections and causes embrittlement, leading to cleavage fracture and intergranular fracture. Synthetic natural gas produced by coal gasification, biogas, and landfill gas inevitably contain hydrogen. Therefore, hydrogen embrittlement of pipeline materials should be considered when they are mixed with conventional natural gas and supplied to customers. To analyze hydrogen embrittlement of base metals and girth weld metals of API 5L X70 and X65 gas pipelines, a specimen was treated in 100 % hydrogen environment at 10 MPa to determine the hydrogen concentration in it. Small punch (SP) tests were performed under various gaseous components and pressures. When SP tests were performed at very low speed, hydrogen embrittlement could be observed. Specimens became very susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement with increasing hydrogen partial pressure in the hydrogen/methane gas mixture, and the SP energy also decreased dramatically.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. KOGAS Research Institute, Korea Gas Corporation, 1248 Suin-ro, Ansan-city, 15328, Korea

    Cheol Man Kim, Young Pyo Kim & Woo Sik Kim

Authors
  1. Cheol Man Kim
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  2. Young Pyo Kim
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  3. Woo Sik Kim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cheol Man Kim.

Additional information

Cheol-Man Kim is Senior Research Engineer in Korea Gas Corporation, Korea. He received his M.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Kookmin University in 1996, Korea. His major interests are material evaluation, welding and NDT, damage analysis, defect assessment and repair of pipeline, and fracture mechanics.

Young-Pyo Kim is a Chief Research Engineer of Gas Facility Technology Center in KOGAS Research Institute, Korea. He received a Ph.D. degree in Material Science and Engineering from Seoul National University in 2008. He joined KOGAS in 1992. His research fields are welding, failure analysis, integrity assessment and repair technology of onshore and offshore pipelines. Nowadays, he studies deep into structural and hydraulic design and engineering of the natural gas transmission pipeline in the arctic area and offshore.

Woo-Sik Kim is a Chief Research Engineer in KOGAS Research Institute, Korea. He received his Ph.D. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Seoul National University in 1993. His major interests are design, construction, integrity assessment and remaining life prediction of buried pipeline.

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Kim, C.M., Kim, Y.P. & Kim, W.S. Influence of gaseous components and pressures on hydrogen embrittlement of natural gas pipeline. J Mech Sci Technol 31, 3691–3695 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-017-0711-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-017-0711-2

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