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In the research, the corrosion and mechanical properties, as well as susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement, of two casing pipe steels were investigated in order to assess their serviceability in corrosive and hydrogenating environments under operation in oil and gas wells. Two carbon steels with different microstructures were tested: the medium carbon steel (MCS) with bainitic microstructure and the medium-high carbon steel (MHCS) with ferrite-pearlite microstructure. The results showed that the corrosion resistance of the MHCS in CO 2 -containing acid chloride solution, simulating formation water, was significantly lower than that of the MCS, which was associated with microstructure features. The higher strength MCS with the dispersed microstructure was less susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement under preliminary electrolytic hydrogenation than the lower strength MHCS with the coarse-grained microstructure. To estimate the embrittlement of steels, the method of the FEM load simulation of the specimens with cracks was used. The constitutive relations of the true stress-strain of the tested steels were defined. The stress and strain dependences in the crack tip were calculated. It was found that the MHCS was characterized by the lower plasticity on the stage of the neck formation of the specimen and the lower fracture toughness than the other one. The obtained results demonstrating the limitations of the usage of casing pipes made of the MHCS with the coarse-grained ferrite/pearlite microstructure in corrosive and hydrogenating environments were discussed.

This paper summarizes a series of the authors' research in the field of assessing the operational degradation of oil and gas transit pipeline steels. Both mechanical and electrochemical properties of steels are deteriorated after operation, as is their resistance to environmentally-assisted cracking. The characteristics of resistance to brittle fracture and stress corrosion cracking decrease most intensively, which is associated with a development of in-bulk dissipated microdamages of the material. The most sensitive indicators of changes in the material's state caused by degradation are impact toughness and fracture toughness by the J-integral method. The degradation degree of pipeline steels can also be evaluated nondestructively based on in-service changes in their polarization resistance and potential of the fracture surface. Attention is drawn to hydrogenation of a pipe wall from inside as a result of the electrochemical interaction of pipe metal with condensed moisture, which facilitates operational degradation of steel due to the combined action of operating stresses and hydrogen. The development of microdamages along steel texture was evidenced metallographically as a trend to the selective etching of boundaries between adjacent bands of ferrite and pearlite and fractographically by revealing brittle fracture elements on the fracture surfaces, namely delamination and cleavage, indicating the sites of cohesion weakening between ferrite and pearlite bands. The state of the X52 steel in its initial state and after use for 30 years was assessed based on the numerical simulation method.

Engineering materials with nanocrystalline structure could be exploited under simultaneous action of mechanical loading and corrosion environments; therefore, their corrosion resistance is important. Surface nanocrystalline structure was generated on middle carbon steels by severe plastic deformation using the method of mechanical pulse friction treatment. This treatment additionally includes high temperature phase transformation and alloying. Using a complex of the corrosive, electrochemical and physical investigations, it was established that nanocrystalline structures can be characterized by lower or increased corrosion resistance in comparison with the reference material. It is caused by the action of two confronting factors: arising energy level and anticorrosive alloying of the surface layer.