Validation of a CFD scheme and empirical erosion model to predict solid particle erosion in multiphase flow carried by an elbow pipe

초록

The current work focuses on the erosion of elbow pipe commonly used in the oil and gas production industry. Erosion wear in pipe flow is numerically predicted in consideration with the interaction between the carrying fluid and the solids as well as the erosion model. The erosion patterns on the surface of an elbow pipe is obtained using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The complexity of the particle flow is significantly modeled by the multiphase flow including both Eulerian and Lagrangian domain. This erosion prediction procedure has a flow field simulation, computation of particle trajectories inside the flow field, and erosion equations applied as particles impinge the walls of the geometry. Particle velocities dominated by the fluid flow and the impact angles are used to calculate the erosion rates in multiphase flow using particle tracking and erosion equations. The flow field and erosion predictions are evaluated through comparisons with experimental data and several erosion equations. The predicted erosion rates obtained by the suggested CFD model shows a good agreement with experimental data available in the literature for different flow regimes and a wide range of flow velocities.