Galvanic corrosion behaviour and mechanism of skin effect heat tracing pipes

Abstract

Skin effect electric heat tracing plays an extremely important role in heavy oil transportation because of its high heating efficiency and strong applicability. However, the heat tracing tube often has corrosion failure problems, which threaten the safe operation of the pipeline. We use the weight loss method, potentiodynamic polarisation, combined with SEM and EDS to study the corrosion mechanism of the heat tracing pipe and main pipe under the skin effect. The research results show that the main type of corrosion of the heat tracing pipes in the Liaohe Teshi pipeline is galvanic corrosion. When the two are connected, the main line X52 is protected as a cathode, and the heat treating tube 20# steel is accelerated as an anode.

Corrosion and Wear Behavior of WC–10Co4Cr Coating under Saturated Salt Drilling Fluid

“…For the same depth, the drill pipe body corrodes more severely than the pipe joint. The reasons for the drill pipe corrosion mainly include galvanic corrosion between the sleeve and the drill pipe and the electrochemical corrosion in electrolytic solution [ 29 ]. The diameter of the drill pipe body is smaller than that of the joint, thus affecting galvanic corrosion.…”