Microstructure and Galvanic Corrosion of Dissimilar Weldment Between Duplex Stainless Steel UNS 31803 and X80 Steel

Kela-2 Gas Field is the main supply for the West-East Gas Pipeline which runs across China with length of 4000 kilometers. Natural gas from Kela-2 contains CO₂/H₂S sour components and 10% condensation water, which makes the medium present very strong corrosivity. In avoidance of corrosion failure, DSS UNS S31803 line pipes were introduced to transmit the gas from the Gas Field to gathering center and processing factory. And it is the first time DSS pipes which is totally about 13km were widely used in oil and gas pipeline around the world. As it is known, DSS UNS S31803 pipes and traditional linepipes X80 were welded together between the gathering lines and mainline. Duplex stainless steel (DSS) UNS S31803 and X80 were welded by metal inertia gas welding (MIG) with consumable ER2209, and the joints take on good mechanical properties. The type II boundary close to the fusion boundary at the carbon steel side was observed by SEM. Obvious concentration gradient of Ni and Cr was observed in the region between the two boundaries, where the hardness was much higher. The weld metal with columnar and some polygonal ferrites take on good passivation against test solution. The heat affected zone beside the X80 base material is mostly granular bainite, some polygonal ferrites and few MA, X80 base material present obvious rolling state, the microstructure of which is the same to X80 heat affected zone, but the level of crystal size reach to 11.6. The corrosion behavior of them dosen’t have any difference, but the corrosion potential of X80 HAZ is much higher than X80 BM, about 50 mv, the corrosion rate of X80 HAZ is also much higher than X80 base material. Potential curves of different weldment regions were also studied in 3.5% NaCl solution and 3.5% NaCl solution with saturated CO₂. Galvanic corrosion behavior of weld metal and X80 steel was also tested and the conclusion is: The cathode reaction is controlled by oxygen diffusion, and when area ratio S (S = A_c / A_a, A_c is the area of DSS WM, A_a is the area of X80 BM) increases, corrosion current of X80 is enhanced rapidly, which is called “gathering principle”. When the weld metal and X80 coupled, cathode has much higher polarization potential and is protected completely.