Tribological and Rheological Behaviour of Thread Compound For Applications In Oil Country Tubular Goods

W. R. TUCKART; N. LAMPONI; L. QUINZANI; P. CASTRO; N. ZABALA

Buenos Aires

Workshop; 2º International Workshop of Tribology-TRIBaires 2013; 2013

Asociación Argentina de Tribología

Connection failures in oil and gas casing and tubing strings can lead not only to costly production delays and repairs but also to potential safety and environmental hazards. Thus there is a big interest in improving the tribological performance and reliability of fittings used in tubes in oil or gas production wells. During the make-up and break-out of the connections (Make & Break operations), threaded joints are subjected to intense mechanical and tribological solicitations. The performance of an OCTG (Oil Country Tubular Good) connection is not only dependent upon its geometry and material properties, but is also influenced, among others, by surface treatments, phosphating and thread compound. The objective of this work is to study the tribological behavior of different thread compounds applied on manganese phosphated carbon steel under low and high pressure sliding contact. For this purpose, a specially designed Block on Ring test was used. In addition, the rheology of the different dopes (as thread compounds are also known in the oil and gas industry jargon) was studied in order to weight its influence in the tribology of the system being studied.