Theoretical and Experimental Study of Bimetal-Pipe Hydroforming

The corrosion of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) gets more and more serious especially in the acidic environment. So, it is very important to develop a perfect anticorrosion technology for exploring sour oil and gas fields economically and safely. Analysis indicates that the bimetal-pipe (BP) which consists of the base layer of low carbon steel and a corrosion resistant alloy (CRA) cladding layer is an economic and reliable anticorrosion technology and has broad application prospects in the transportation of acid medium. However, theoretical study of hydraulic expansion mechanism for BP is not enough. In this paper, the deformation compatibility condition of BP was obtained by studying the deformation rule of the (CRA) liner and the outer pipe of carbon steel in the forming process; the mechanical model which can compute the hydroforming pressure of BP has been established based on the nonlinear kinematic hardening characteristics of material; furthermore, based on the stress strain curve of inner pipe simultaneously, the calculation method of the plastic hardening stress has been proposed. Thus, the accurate method for computing the forming pressure was obtained. The experimental data show that results are consistent with results of the proposed model. It indicates that the model can be used to provide theoretical guidance for the design and production as well as use of BP.