Life enhancement of fluid end using surface engineering on 4330V steel

Fluid End is used to handle slurry containing crude oil in the oil field of oil and gas industries. Corrosion fatigue because of cyclic loading and slurry erosion because of sand containing slurry coming in contact of working surface of cross bore are most dominating failure mode in the fluid end. AISI 4330V is cheaper steel mostly used than 17.4 PH and 15.5 PH steel for this application.

In order to study enhance life of AISI 4330V steel specimens of bare material and nitro carburizing plus oxidation were studied using rotating bending machine with corrosive drip of 3.5%wt. NaCl solution and slurry erosion study using silica sand in water with impingement angle of 45º and velocity of 7.6 m/sec. Corrosion rate was obtained in 3.5%wt NaCl solution using Tafel plot for both the specimens.

Increased hardness of nitro carburized plus oxidized layer improve corrosion fatigue life by almost 8 times, slurry erosion resistance by 2X times and corrosion resistance by 3X times than base material.

The experimental work indicates that the surface engineering of nitro carburizing plus oxidizing on AISI 4330V steel may improve life of fluid end in oil field environment.

Dr. R.K.P. Singh is Senior Director, Kalyani Centre for Technology & Innovation (KCTI) - Bharat Forge Ltd; PUNE. He is B.E. from BIT, Sindri (1970), M.Tech from IIT Bombay (1975) & Ph D from IIT, Madras in Metallurgical Engineering (1994). He has Green Belt Certification for SIX-SIGMA.

Before joining Bharat Forge Dr. R.K.P. Singh was Director General, Institute of Steel Development & Growth, Kolkata Dr Singh was Professor at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur for 3 years and earlier to that he served as General Manager (QC, R&D), Lloyds Steel Industries Limited, Wardha for six years. Before joining Lloyds Steel, Dr. Singh worked in SAIL at Bokaro Steel Plant and at R&D Centre for Iron & Steel in various capacities for a total period of 22 years. Dr. Singh has over 150 national / international publications and 26 Patents to his credit. He has widely travelled to USSR, Sweden, Norway, UK, USA, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, S-Korea, Spain, France, Germany, Australia and other countries. He has played Key role in development and transfer of several technologies in India. His prime areas of expertise are application engineering, product development, failure analysis, steel making and processing and TQM. He was conferred the Distinguished Service Award of IIT, Bombay in December 2018. He figures in Marquis Book of “Who-is-Who in Science & Engineering”, and in 2000 Outstanding Scientist of 21st Century compiled by International Biographical Centre Cambridge, England. He has guided 8 PhD’s under Indian and Australian Universities and 1 PhD is under progress. He was conferred Fellowship of Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2023. Since year 2012 he is member of the Apex Council for PM Fellowship.