Mechanical Properties of X80 Grade UOE Pipe for Long-Term Exposure at Elevated Temperature

Recently, X80 grade UOE pipes have been planned to apply to steam injecting oil sand recovery systems to increase the volume of steam to be injected and lowering installation cost. The pipes for systems are subjected to high temperature for a long time, such as 350-C, for 20 years. Before real applications of the pipes, it is important to ensure the reliability of the pipes during and after long-term operations. In this study, in order to establish simulation conditions for 350-C × 20 years of operation, the change in microstructure and resulting mechanical properties of X80 grade pipes after a long-term exposure at elevated temperatures were investigated. Then, mechanical properties of the pipes subjected to the established simulated condition were examined. Change in the microstructure was quite small after exposure of 400-C and lower temperatures. Tensile strengths of the base metal and seam weld after up to 400-C of heat treatment can be arranged with the Larson-Miller parameter composed with temperature and holding time of the heat treatments. Therefore, heat treatments at 400-C for shorter than 20 years can be simulation conditions for the operation condition of the systems. As a result of mechanical tests simulating long-term exposure, satisfied performance of X80 grade pipes can be obtained.