Wet H2S Cracking in Steel Vessels

Exposure of carbon-steel equipment to wet H2S service environments can lead to various forms of attack, e.g. hydrogen blistering and hydrogen induced cracking (HIC), stress oriented hydrogen induced cracking (SOHIC) and sulfide stress cracking (SSC). Documenting equipment have been attributed oo these forms of corrosive damage.

This large scale test program, sponsored by the Refining Department of the American Petroleum Institute (API) and administered by the Materials Properties Council (MPC), provided new and valuable findings on the behavior of various carbon steels and associated welds in various simulated wt H2S environments. Non-intrusive, external inspection methods, i.e., ultrasonic (UT) and acoustic emission (AE), were compared to internal wet florescent magnetic particle testing (WFMPT) and validated by destructive metallographic examination.