Environmental Stress Corrosion Cracking Resistance of High Density Polyethylene Pipes in Alkali Surfactant Polymer Floods
Date
2012-10-05
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Abstract
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques such as alkali surfactant polymer (ASP)
flooding will be required to meet future energy requirements. Large pipeline
networks are required for the transportation of ASP fluids. To ensure the safe
and reliable operation of these pipelines, high density polyethylene (HDPE)
materials are frequently used due to its corrosion resistance from oil-field fluids.
Surfactant chemicals and other wetting agents are known to cause
environmental stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of polyethylene plastics. This
thesis studies the resistance of HDPE pipeline materials to environmental stress
corrosion cracking due to the exposure to ASP chemicals.
This research taken an industrial focus, as a result, test methods were selected
that closely represented actual pipeline conditions. Full scale HDPE pipe
samples were pressurized with a solution of alkali and surfactant chemicals
commonly used for ASP floods. Following conditioning, test specimens were
prepared from the pipe samples and subjected to tensile testing to investigate for
evidence of stress corrosion cracking. The results showed that conditioned
specimens had no significant degradation of the mechanical properties compared
to unconditioned samples.
Based on the test results, it is concluded that there is no evidence of
environmental SCC of the HDPE pipe materials due to pressurized exposure to
ASP fluids. Additional testing utilizing more severe accelerated test methods are
recommended to confirm the long-term resistance of HDPE materials in ASP
floods. Nevertheless, this work supports the empirical industry experience that
current HDPE pipeline materials are resistance to ASP chemicals. These
research results can be incorporated into current pipeline design and operating
procedures to ensure the safe and reliable operation of ASP systems.
Description
Keywords
Engineering--Industrial, Engineering--Petroleum
Citation
Dooley, C. (2012). Environmental Stress Corrosion Cracking Resistance of High Density Polyethylene Pipes in Alkali Surfactant Polymer Floods (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25921