Corrosion and Materials

The Corrosion and Materials specialist team has responsibility for asset integrity management relating to external and internal corrosion threats to pressure systems which could result in a Major Accident Hazard or personal injury. Our work covers the entire lifecycle of offshore installation from design, operation, inspection and maintenance, management of change, life extension and decommissioning. Topics we cover include:

materials selection,
design of pipework and plant,
coatings selection,
risk based inspection schemes, inspection reporting, audit and review;
corrosion threats assessment;
management of change to corrosion threat due to changing process fluids;
external corrosion (atmospheric, chloride stress corrosion cracking)
internal corrosion (sweet, sour, microbial, dead leg, under deposit)
galvanic and preferential weld corrosion
corrosion monitoring;
corrosion control by chemical injection;
cathodic protection

We have expertise in metallic and non-metallic materials, weld engineering and non-corrosion failure mechanisms such as fatigue, brittle failure, fretting and erosion.

Current Inspection Priorities

Corrosion under Insulation
Corrosion at trunnion supports
Dead leg corrosion
Bolting corrosion
Risk Based Inspection strategies
Non-destructive examination

Corrosion related safety bulletins

Guidance

We have been involved in the production of comprehensive corrosion management guidance issued by the Energy Institute ('Guidance for corrosion management in oil and gas production and processing'), as well as several other topic specific guidance documents.

Materials and Corrosion research

HSE currently has research ongoing at its laboratory, including some shared research* in the following areas:

Stress corrosion cracking
Bolting corrosion*
Performance of composite repair wraps*
Performance of advanced manufactured metallic components

Previous relevant corrosion research