Slow Strain Rate Test Method for Screening Corrosion-Resistant Alloys for Stress Corrosion Cracking in Sour Oilfield Service

Failures of metals exposed to hydrogen sulfide (H₂S)-containing (sour) oilfield production environments have been reported for more than 50 years and have usually occurred in carbon or low-alloy steels. Failures of high-strength steels by brittle cracking (sulfide stress cracking [SSC]) and of lower-strength plate and pipe steels by blistering and hydrogen-induced (stepwise) cracking have also been reported. As a result, engineers and scientists have developed test methods to evaluate steels for resistance to failure by these mechanisms in sour environments. These and other considerations led to the establishment of NACE Task Group (TG) T-1F-9, ―Metallic Materials Testing Techniques for Sulfide Corrosion Cracking, which originally developed NACE Standard TM01773 in 1977. The task group (now TG 085) has continued to revise that standard. TG T-1F-9 developed this standard test method incorporating the SSR test to be used by laboratory investigators for screening CRAs for SCC in sour oilfield service.