The objective of the research described in this paper was to evaluate the influence of the composition of the sparging gas on the electrochemical corrosion kinetics, hydrogen permeation, and crack growth behavior of a line pipe steel in a simulated near-neutral-pH cracking electrolyte. A series of potentiodynamic polarization experiments,
Devanathan/Stachurski type hydrogen permeation experiments, and cyclic loading tests were performed with varying levels of O2 and CO2. Tests revealed that increasing the level of CO2 increased the corrosion rate at the free corrosion potential, increased hydrogen permeation, and accelerated crack growth during cyclic growth tests. Increasing the level of O2 had little effect on the corrosion rate at the free corrosion potential, decreased the rate of hydrogen permeation, and increased the crack growth rate in crack growth tests. Keywords: stress-corrosion cracking, pipelines, potentiodynamic polarization, hydrogen permeation, crack
growth