-35-

w high residual stresses both inside and out having been

measured as high as 65 ksi circumferential and.25 ksi
longitudinal (70). Fortunately, it usually is not necessary
to drastically water quench to avoid temper embrittlement,
particularly with the newer analyses being employed for
casing and tubing in the quenched and tempered condition.

All rings were a l s o tested in the notched condition

and all failed. This is not surprising considering the
deleterious influence of cold work developed at the notch
root on loading and the stress concentration imposed by
the notch (71-74)

The data of Table 20 give the results of a brief study

to determine if commercially treated casing, tubing, etc.,
may indeed be subject t o temper embrittlement. Note that
steel # 5 as received did fail, but after being retempered
and quenched from the tempering temperature it did not fail.
On the other hand, steel X9 which,did not fail in the as
received condition, exhibited failure after given a temper
embrittling treatment. Steel #lo failed in the as received
condition; however, after quite rapid air cooling from 1200'F
one of two duplicate tests did not fail, indicating some
improvement with respect to temper embrittlement. Steel #11
(P110) failed as received; this could be partly the result
 -36-

of the rather high strength and partly due to temper

embrittlement. However, when retempered at 1200'F to
substantially reduce the strength, the quench specimen
did not fail and the slow cooled one did fail from temper
embrittlement. This rather cursory examination clearly
indicates that temper embrittlement in many instances can
and will actually,limitthe performance of casing and other
components of a geothermal power system. It should be
appreciated that although temper embritt1ement.may aggrevate
the situation in a sour environment, its deleterious influ-
ence on performance is by no means restricted to sour en-
vironments.

Fracture Mechanics Tests

Double Canterlever Beam Specimen (DCB)

The DCB test technique has been extensively employed

for a study of a variety of steels particularly at Climax
Molybdenum Corp. An examination of a series of air melted
Mn-Mo-C9O casing steels indicated that SSC resistance was
favored by lower Mn, lower austenitizing temperature and
 -37-

U
fast cooling from the tempering temperature ( 7 5 , 7 6 ) . Several
analyses of potential’well head steels clearly revealed the ., *-

improved resistance caused by the difference in microstructurc

(martensite) resulting,from increase in hardenability ( 7 7 ) .
Other studies invo1ved.a series of .30C steels with varying
Cr, Mn, S , and additions of Cb and/or V. Here, a modified
4130 (.75Mo, .035Cb) exhibited increased resistance to SSC
at the higher tempering temperature (78,79) quite consistant
with observations obtained by all the various test techniques
such as bent beam, tensile, rings, etc. Also, a general
correlation between the KI and the Shell bent beam speci-
SCC
men was observed in terms of rank ordering of several per-
tinent alloys ( 8 0 ) .

The DCB results are summarized in Table 21. The three

laboratory air melted steels (3Cr-1Mo-.lo, . 2 0 , .30C) were
examined on the basis of a literature indication that en-
vironmental cracking resistance was superior in martensitic
steels with an untwinned structure (low carbon) compared
with twinned structures (81). Our KI values were all
ssc
relaLively low and somewhat disappoipting, so our fracture
mechanics studies were redirected to more promising alloys.

r-
 -38-

ci
The two l a b o r a t o r y vacuum melted s t e e l s (V1312, V1313)
t e s t v a l u e s are p l o t t e d on Fig. 1 2 f o r comparison w i t h t h e
s c a t t e r band f o r a number o f h e a t s o f commercial 4130 ( 5 3 ) .
I t is a p p a r e n t t h a t b o t h s t e e l s e x h i b i t a h i g h e r K v a l u e
s c a t t e r band t h a n 4130. S t e e l V1312 i s e s s e n t i a l l y a Mo-Cb

modified 4130 and VI313 i s t h e same e x c e p t V h a s been s u b -

s t i t u t e d f o r Mo.

The K v a l u e s f o r t h e h i g h p u r i t y l a b o r a t o r y h e a t s
(1550, 1551) are p l o t t e d on F i g . 1 3 f o r comparison w i t h t h e
4130 s c a t t e r band. Table 1 i n d i c a t e s t h a t t h e s e two s t e e l s
c o n t a i n . 7 5 C r and 1 . 5 Mo w i t h and w i t h o u t 1 Cu. I t is

apparent t h a t these steels possess a higher K value scatter

band t h a n 4130 o v e r t h e s t r e n g t h r a n g e of primary i n t e r e s t .
The Cu a d d i t i o n does n o t seem t o have any i n f l u e n c e .

Test R e s u l t s S c a t t e r

T h i s r e p o r t s h o u l d n o t be concluded w i t h o u t a b r i e f
discussion of t h e scatter i n test r e s u l t s . Our e x p e r i e n c e
i n d i c a t e d t h a t a l l t e s t methods e x h i b i t e d some s c a t t e r i n
t h e d a t a b u t t h a t t h e NACE t e n s i l e showed s u b s t a n t i a l l y
t h e g r e a t e s t amount followed by t h e two p o i n t bend t e s t .
 -39-

LJ Some o f t h i s s c a t t e r must be i n h e r e n t i n t h e t e s t method

b u t o t h e r f a c t o r s are i n v o l v e d .

I t is unfortunate t h a t t h e range o f s t r e n g t h l e v e l s
s u i t a b l e f o r u s e i n s o u r environments r e q u i r e tempering
on t h e s t e e p p a r t o f t h e Y . S . o r RC v s tempering t e m p e r a t u r e
curve. Fig. 1 4 i l l u s t r a t e s t h i s p o i n t . Here, t h e s t r e n g t h
i s p l o t t e d a g a i n s t t h e tempering t e m p e r a t u r e . Although t h e
p l o t i s l a b e l e d s c h e m a t i c , t h e d a t a c o r r e s p o n d approximately
t o t h o s e f o r t h e modified 4130. On t h i s c u r v e w e have shown
a band c o r r e s p o n d i n g t o p l u s o r minus approximately 10°P,
r e a s o n a b l e l a b o r a t o r y c o n t r o l and b e t t e r t h a n normal i n d u s -
t r i a l control. I t i s e v i d e n t t h a t t h i s s p r e a d i n tempera-
t u r e c o r r e s p o n d s t o approximately a s p r e a d o f 3RC o r 1 0 - 1 2 ksi
i n t h e Y.S. T h i s i s a s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e even f o r l a b o r a -
t o r y t e s t s i n view o f t h e l i m i t e d u s e f u l s t r e n g t h range i n
s o u r environments.

I t i s a p p a r e n t from t h e above t h a t a run o f comrncrcial

c a s i n g , t u b i n g , e t c . , may e a s i l y show v a r i a t i o n s i n Y.S. of
25-35 ksi.' Another p o t e n t i a l s o u r c e o f s c a t t e r from il

p r a c t i c a l p o i n t of view i n v o l v e s t h e p o s s i b i l i t y of v a r y i n g
d e g r e e s o f temper e m b r i t t l e m e n t . Since the appropriate
tempering t e m p e r a t u r e s are n e a r t h e t o p o r above t h e
e m b r i t t l i n g r a n g e , v a r y i n g c o o l i n g r a t e s from t h e tempering