Development of a Nano-Composite Coating Technology for Improvement of Carbon Steel Pipe to Erosion-Corrosion in Oil Sands Slurry

Date
2013-09-13
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Erosion-corrosion (E-C) has constituted an essential threat to the integrity of oil sands slurry hydrotransport system. To improve the resistance of carbon steel pipes to E-C in oil sands slurry, a composite coating technology has been developed by electrolytic deposition in this research. Parametric effects on the structure and properties of the coating were investigated in order to fabricate high performance coatings. It is found that the electrodepositing parameters, such as the concentration of SiC nano-particles in bath electrolyte, cathodic current density, current pattern and temperature, affect remarkably the particle deposition which relates directly with the coating performance. Furthermore, the parameters in pulse current electrodeposition also affect the properties and performance of the prepared coatings. Enhancements of the corrosion resistance and micro-hardness of the coating have been obtained at a low duty cycle and high frequency, which result in an increased amount of SiC particles in the coating. The nucleation and early stage growth mechanism of the composite coating on the steel substrate was determined by cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry current transient measurements and atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterization. A mixed instantaneous and progressive mechanism is followed during electrodeposition under low cathodic overpotentials. At high overpotentials, it switches to the instantaneous mechanism. An empirical model based on the modified Guglielmi’s model was developed to enable quantification and prediction of the co-depositing rate of SiC particles with Ni-Co coating during pulse electrodeposition. To understand the E-C behavior of pipe steel in oil sands slurry and the performance of the fabricated coating for E-C resistance, parametric effects, including the sand concentration, flow velocity and impact angle, on the E–C behavior of bare and coated steels were studied. It is demonstrated that erosion components are the dominant contributors to E–C in oil sands slurry, while the contribution of corrosion components is slight. The developed Ni-Co-SiC nano-composite coating shows a higher resistance to E-C than the base steel.
Description
Keywords
Materials Science, Mechanical
Citation
Yang, Y. (2013). Development of a Nano-Composite Coating Technology for Improvement of Carbon Steel Pipe to Erosion-Corrosion in Oil Sands Slurry (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25663