The fluid ends of fracturing pumps have finite life. With perfect maintenance, they will still fail by fatigue cracking, because of the high stresses at intersecting bores. Material choices give limited opportunity to improve fatigue strength. However, bore treatment to induce compressive residual stress can substantially increase fatigue life. In this SPE Tech Talk, we will describe proprietary methods for inducing deep residual stresses by shot peening and the resulting improvement in the life of fluid ends.
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