The sulfide stress corrosion cracking of high alloy stainless steels for oil and natural gas wells

The stress corrosion cracking resistance of some martensitic, precipitation hardening, duplex and high alloy austenitic stainless steels for oil or gas wells has been investigated. Different test methods have been utilized: constant load tests on smooth specimens with and without crevices, constant deformation tests on precracked specimens, and constant elongation rate tests on smooth specimens. The tests have been carried out in a NACE environment and in a modified NACE environment. The tests confirmed both the susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking of the martensitic and the precipitation hardening stainless steels and the resistance of the high austenitic stainless steel. Some tests showed the stress corrosion cracking susceptibility of the duplex stainless steel to be worse than expected from traditional tests.