Effect of mechanical stress on electrochemical corrosion of X65 carbon steel in CO2 saturated brine

Abstract

Abstract Applied mechanical stress could accelerate the chemical or electrochemical process of metal corrosion in weak acid solution. Series of experimental tests were conducted in this research. The results show that there is no obvious correlation between OCP (open circuit potential) values and applied stresses. However, The LPR (linear polarization resistance)corrosion rate increased intensively under the applied stress of 400 MPa. Correspondingly, the EIS (electrochemical impedance spectroscopy) Nyquist diagrams show that all of the plots contain a semicircle over the whole frequency range and the semicircle size decreased with increasing applied stress. The real-time corrosion current square waves triggered by the mechanical stress were successfully monitored by using the potentiostatic method in CO2 saturated brine under 200 mv (above OCP), flow and lower pH condition. This result is significant for many research fields, such as petrochemistry, aerospace and nuclear industries, which suffer weak acid corrosive environment.