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Case study of low-alloy steel material selection for the bodies of subsea valves: failure prevention approaches

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Abstract

Material selection is an important task in the mechanical design of industrial components such as piping and valves. Industrial valves play a vital role in fluid control in the piping systems used in various industries, including the oil and gas industry. Low-alloy steel materials are widely used for subsea valves in size ranges of 3″ and above. In a recent subsea project that included 13 manifolds and 1056 valves, 34% of the subsea valves were made of low-alloy steel material, whereas 66% of them in size range less than 3″ were in super duplex. If the valve body is made from duplex stainless steel rather than low-alloy steel plus Inconel 625, the price of each valve could be 1.10–1.15 times higher than the unit prices in the following table. Since low-alloy steel is not a corrosion-resistant alloy (CRA), its extensive uses raises concerns about its application in the harsh and corrosive subsea environment, which is at the same time a precious and increasingly embattled ecosystem. The external corrosion of low-alloy steel body valves can be prevented by a combination of coating and cathodic protection. The internal corrosion of this material is prevented by applying 3 mm of Inconel 625 cladding in two layers. This article offers recommendations for future research, such as the application of low-alloy steel materials for other parts of subsea valves and the use of laser weld technology for applying an Inconel 625 weld overlay.

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  1. Department of Valves and Actuators, Baker Hughes, Oslo, Norway

    Karan Sotoodeh

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  1. Karan Sotoodeh
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Correspondence to Karan Sotoodeh.

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Sotoodeh, K. Case study of low-alloy steel material selection for the bodies of subsea valves: failure prevention approaches. Prog Addit Manuf 8, 77–85 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40964-022-00313-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40964-022-00313-7

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