Standard Practice for Evaluating and Qualifying Oil Field and Refinery Corrosion Inhibitors Using Rotating Cage

5.1 Selection of corrosion inhibitor for oil field and refinery applications involves qualification of corrosion inhibitors in the laboratory (see Guide G170). Field conditions should be simulated in the laboratory in a fast and cost-effective manner (1).4

5.2 Oil field corrosion inhibitors should provide protection over a range of flow conditions from stagnant to that found during typical production conditions. Not all inhibitors are equally effective over this range of conditions so it is important for a proper evaluation of inhibitors to test the inhibitors using a range of flow conditions.

5.3 The RC test system is relatively inexpensive and uses simple flat specimens that allow replicates to be run with each setup. (2-13).

5.4 In this practice, a general procedure is presented to obtain reproducible results using RC to simulate the effects of different types of coupon materials, inhibitor concentrations, oil, gas and brine compositions, temperature, pressure, and flow. Oil field fluids may often contain sand; however, this practice does not cover erosive effects that occur when sand is present.