Abstract
It is required for the steel materials used in the sour environment to have sufficient resistance to hydrogen induced cracking(HIC). For line pipe steels, HIC resistance could be varied during pipe making process due to the large plastic deformation applied in the thick-wall pipe. In order to figure out such effect, HIC tests were performed not only in the plate condition but in the pipe condition and their results were compared in terms of cracking ratio. Test results demonstrated a detrimental effect of plastic deformation to HIC resulting in a substantial increase in the cracking ratio after pipe forming process. All of the cracks found in the pipe material were located in the outer layer of pipe where the tensile strain was resulted during pipe forming stage. In order to understand the HIC resistance of the pipe but in the plate condition, it was suggested to pre-strain the plate to some extent before the HIC test.
