Martensitic stainless steels have been widely used for oil country tubular goods and line pipe because of their high strength and excellent corrosion resistance in CO: gas wells. Recently, much attention has been paid for application of these steels in light sour environments. Effect of strength on stress cracking resistance of martensitic stainless steels whose yield strengths of 80-135ksi are studied. Corrosion rate and
hydrogen content in steel are also measured to study the mechanism of stress cracking resistance of martensitic stainless steels. Uni-axial constant load tests of some martensitic stainless steels in solutions of pH=3.5-4.5 with PH2S=0.0035-1 atm were conducted to evaluate SSC resistance. At higher pH, steels including 2%Mo showed excellent resistance to SSC even if high strength. At lower pH, high corrosion rate
and diffusive hydrogen content in steel were observed. One of low strength steel showed excellent SSC resistance. Martensitic stainless steels are considered to show excellent SSC resistance in completely passive condition even if high strength. Including high Mo content is effective to passivation. Additionally, some low strength steels(or low applied stress) are also considered to show excellent SSC resistance in depassive condition. Uni-axial constant load tests of a few martensitic
stainless steels in NaCl solution under cathodic protection were also conducted. No failure was observed even if under high current density caused by hydrogen evolution. Several hundreds or thousands times higher ratio of diffusive hydrogen content in steel per cathodic current density in sour environments than it in cathodic protection was obtained.
Keywords: Martensitic stainless steel, pH, H2S, SSC, Cathodic protection, Corrosion rate, Hydrogen