Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastic Composite Coatings for Steel Pipelines

Abstract

Steel pipeline systems carry about three-quarters of the world’s oil and gas. Such pipelines need to be coated to prevent corrosion and erosion. An alternative to the current epoxy-based coating, a multi-layered composite coating is developed in this research. The composite coatings were made from carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polymer (CFRTP) material. Uniaxial carbon fiber CF/PPS prepreg tape was utilized, where the PPS (polyphenylene sulfide) is employed as a thermoplastic (TP) matrix. Compression molding was used to manufacture three flat panels, each consisting of seven plies: UD (Unidirectional), Biaxial, and Off-axis. Samples of carbon steel were coated with multi-layered composites. The physical, mechanical, and corrosion-resistant properties of steel-composite coated samples were evaluated. A better and more promising lap-shear strength of about 58 MPa was demonstrated. When compared to the Biaxial and Off-axis samples, the UD assembly had the maximum flexural strength (420 MPa); however, the Biaxial coating has the highest corrosion resistance (445 kΩ·cm2) when compared to the Off-axis and UD coatings.