Mitigation of ammonia-induced SCC in a cupronickel alloy by additions of MgCl2

The authors carried out failure analysis of bent and branched copper-nickel alloy pipelines that had failed in marine environments. These failures were almost always dominated by a brittle stress-corrosion cracking (SCC) mode and could often be attributed to the presence of ammoniacal byproducts in the operating environment. Attempts were made to reproduce the marine-type field failures in the laboratory by testing a Cu-5.37%Ni alloy, similar to the material used in failed pipelines. The tests were performed under slow strain rate test (SSRT) conditions in aqueous ammonia and ammoniacal seawater. Results revealed that the ammonia-induced brittle SCC failures were predominant and reduced the load-bearing capacity of the alloy. The real-life failures are not simple SSRT-type failures. The operating conditions, in addition to the induced residual stresses from manufacturing/processing, subject the system pipes to external forces and widely varying pressures and fluid flow rates. This combination of stresses can produce both static and cyclic stress conditions, similar to a static load coupled with a low-amplitude cyclic load. Tests conducted under superimposed cyclic stresses on prestressed specimens were found to accelerate the stress-corrosion failures in the present copper-nickel alloy in an ammoniacal environment. During the testing process, it was established that chlorides of sodium and magnesium also had a role to play on the ammonia-induced SCC. Further tests were therefore designed, and this paper summarizes test results, which point to the possible mitigation of ammonia-induced SCC in cupronickels by the addition of MgCl₂.