Failure of a super duplex stainless steel reaction vessel

Abstract

Crevice corrosion and stress corrosion cracking (SCC) were recently discovered in a vessel used to strip vinyl chloride monomer from a water-based slurry of PVC granules. The vessel was manufactured from UNS S32750 super duplex stainless steel and the welds were produced using matching welding consumables. Although localised corrosion might have been expected, the occurrence of SCC was inconsistent with the majority of the published literature: in particular, the nominal operating temperature should have been too low for chloride-induced SCC of super-duplex stainless steel. However, damage was found mainly in the vicinity of the circumferential and longitudinal welds, and part of the subsequent failure investigation was therefore focused on the possibility of poor weld quality being the cause of failure. This task was approached primarily by measuring the influence of welding parameters on the value of the critical pitting temperature (CPT), and attempting to correlate the results with observed changes in the weld microstructure. CPT values were determined by a potentiodynamic method, using samples cut from the failed vessel and from a range of reference welds manufactured using known welding parameters.