Investigation of the Degradation Mechanisms of Particulate Reinforced Epoxy Coatings and Zinc-Rich Coatings Under an Erosion and Corrosion Environment for Oil and Gas Industry Application

During oil and gas production and transportation, the presence of an oil-sand slurry, together with the presence of CO2, H2S, oxygen, and seawater, create an erosive/abrasive and corrosive environment for the interior surfaces of undersea pipelines transporting oil and gas from offshore platforms. Erosion/wear and corrosion are often synergic processes leading to a much greater material loss of pipeline cross-section than that caused by each individual process alone.;Both organic coatings and metallic sacrificial coatings have been widely employed to provide protection to the pipeline steels against corrosion through barrier protection and cathodic protection, and these protection mechanisms have been well studied. However, coating performance under the synergic processes of erosion/wear and corrosion have been much less researched and coating degradation mechanisms when erosion/wear and corrosion are both going on has not been well elucidated.;In the work presented in this dissertation, steel panels coated with filler reinforced epoxy coatings and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) reinforced zinc-rich coatings have been evaluated under erosion/wear followed by an exposure to a corrosive environment. Electrochemical tests and material characterization methods have been applied to study the degradation mechanisms of the coatings during the tests and coating degradation mechanisms have been proposed.;While organic coatings with a lower amount of filler particles provided better protection in a corrosive environment alone and in solid particle impingement erosion testing alone, organic coatings with a higher amount of filler particles showed better performance during wear testing alone. A higher amount of filler particles was also beneficial in providing protection against wear and corrosion environment, and erosion and corrosion environment. Coating thickness played a significant role in the barrier properties of the coatings under both erosion and corrosion tests. When the organic coatings were exposed to a corrosive environment with presence of H2S, thicker coatings provided better protection regardless of the amount and types of filler particles present in the coatings.;For zinc-rich coatings, coatings with CNTs provided better barrier protection for the steel substrate than traditional zinc-rich coatings in a corrosive environment alone. However, the CNTs-filled zinc-rich epoxy coatings did not provide adequate protection when the coated specimens were exposed to erosion and corrosion.