Fracture Toughness Assessment of the Susceptibility for Sulfide Stress Corrosion Cracking in High-Strength Carbon Steels: A Review

High-strength carbon steels typically used as oil country tubular goods (OCTG) made from high-strength carbon steels can be susceptible to sulfide stress cracking (SSC) when in service in environments that contain H₂S. In the last 25 y, linear-elastic fracture mechanics has been used to understand both the mechanistic aspects of this form of cracking and to quantify the susceptibility to SSC of different OCTG steel grades. This paper presents a review on the evolution of the double cantilever beam method as a standard practice to assess the threshold stress intensity factor K_ISSC. The paper evaluates the capabilities and limitations of this testing method to describe the conditions associated with crack propagation. The review study indicates that new fracture parameters based on the energy required for crack propagation such as J-integral might be required to overcome the limitations of the static conditions implied in the stress intensity factor evaluation approach.