The Electrochemical Investigation of the Corrosion Rates of Welded Pipe ASTM A106 Grade B

The aim of this work was to investigate the corrosion rate of welded carbon steel pipe (ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) A106 Grade B) by GTAW under the currents of 60, 70, and 80 A. All welded pipes satisfied weld procedure specifications and were verified by a procedure qualification record. The property of used materials was in agreement with the ASME standard: section IX. The welded pipe was used for schematic model corrosion measurements applied in 3.5 wt % NaCl at various flow rates and analyzed by using the electrochemical technique with Tafel's equation. The results showed the correlation between the flow rate and the corrosion rate of the pipe; the greater the flow rate, the higher corrosion rate. Moreover, the welded pipe from the welding current of 70 A exhibited higher tensile strength and corrosion resistance than those from currents of 60 and 80 A. It indicated that the welding current of 70 A produced optimum heat for the welding of A106 pipe grade B. In addition, the microstructure of the welded pipe was observed by SEM. The phase transformation and crystallite size were analyzed by XRD and Sherrer's equation. The results suggested that the welding current could change the microstructure and phase of the welded pipe causing change in the corrosion rate.