Abstract
This paper presents the fracture mechanics analysis of hexagonal head clamping screws of a diaphragm differential manometer located at the oil discharge head of an offshore facility. The failure mechanism was identified as chlorine stress corrosion cracking (CLSCC) in a marine-industrial environment containing chloride chemical species. The cause of failure was identified as overtightening up to 1.55 times above the nominal clamp-loads during the installation of the failed screws, while the partially failed screws were tightened closer to the nominal values. Data on the fracture toughness and CLSCC growth-rate of type 304 stainless-steel in the marine-industrial environment were obtained by applying fracture mechanics and fractographic examination. The kinetics data indicates that most of the crack growth time is spent in the Stage I of SCC, so the kinetics equation for this can be used to make conservative estimations of the remaining life if a reasonable Stage I crack-size is used.
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