Numerical Investigation of the Influence of Sand Particle Concentration on Long Radius Elbow Erosion for Liquid-Solid Flow

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Mechanical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia

Abstract

Erosion caused by sand transportation in flow changing devices is a serious concern in the hydrocarbon and mineral processing industry, which entail to failure and malfunction of flow devices. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with discrete phase models (DPM) were employed for analysis of carbon steel long radius 90-Degree elbow erosion due to the sand concentration of 2, 5 and 10% transported in the liquid phase. The simulation is completed with the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) and Oka erosion model. The simulation result from the RSM model was validated by comparison with the erosion distribution results in the literature. The largest erosion zones have been identified at or near the outlet of the 90-Degree elbows outer wall surface with a maximum erosion rate appeared for 10% sand concentration. Furthermore, the relationships of turbulence intensity on erosion, particle trajectory, and particle mass concentration in the elbow pipe were discussed.

Keywords


 
1. Elemuren, R., Tamsaki, A., Evitts, R., Oguocha, I.N.A., Kennell,
G., Gerspacher, R. and Odeshi, A., "Erosion-corrosion of 90° aisi
1018 steel elbows in potash slurry: Effect of particle
concentration on surface roughness", Wear,  Vol. 430-431,
(2019), 37-49. 
2. Mazumder, Q.H., "Prediction of erosion due to solid particle
impact in single-phase and multiphase flows", Journal of
Pressure Vessel Technology,  Vol. 129, No. 4, (2006), 576-582. 
3. Duarte, C.A.R., de Souza, F.J. and dos Santos, V.F., "Mitigating
elbow erosion with a vortex chamber", Powder Technology,  Vol.
288, (2016), 6-25. 
4. Lin, N., Lan, H., Xu, Y., Dong, S. and Barber, G., "Effect of the
gas–solid two-phase flow velocity on elbow erosion", Journal of 
Natural Gas Science and Engineering,  Vol. 26, (2015), 581586.
5. Vieira, R.E., Kesana, N.R., McLaury, B.S., Shirazi, S.A., Torres,
C.F., Schleicher, E. and Hampel, U., "Experimental investigation
of the effect of 90° standard elbow on horizontal gas–liquid
stratified and annular flow characteristics using dual wire-mesh
sensors", Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science,  Vol. 59,
(2014), 72-87. 
6. Pei, J., Lui, A., Zhang, Q., Xiong, T., Jiang, P. and Wei, W.,
"Numerical investigation of the maximum erosion zone in elbows
for liquid-particle flow", Powder Technology,  Vol. 333, (2018),
47-59. 
7. Liu, J., BaKeDaShi, W., Li, Z., Xu, Y., Ji, W., Zhang, C., Cui, G.
and Zhang, R., "Effect of flow velocity on erosion–corrosion of
90-degree horizontal elbow", Wear,  Vol. 376-377, (2017), 516525.
8. Wee, S.K. and Yap, Y.J., "Cfd study of sand erosion in pipeline",
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering,  Vol. 176,
(2019), 269-278. 
9. Chen, J., Wang, Y., Li, X., He, R., Han, S. and Chen, Y., "Erosion
prediction of liquid-particle two-phase flow in pipeline elbows via
cfd–dem coupling method", Powder Technology,  Vol. 275,
(2015), 182-187. 
10. Keshavarz moraveji, m. and Azizi, K., "Computational fluid
dynamic- two fluid model study of gas-solid heat transfer in a
riser with various inclination angles", International Journal of
Engineering, Transactions A:Basics,  Vol. 30, No. 4, (2017),
464-472. 
11. Hasanzadeh Afrouzi, H. and Fattahi, E., "Dispersion and
deposition of micro particles over two square obstacles in a
channel via hybrid lattice boltzmann method and discrete phase
model", International Journal of Engineering, Transactions C:
Aspects,  Vol. 25, No. 3, (2012), 257-266. 

12. Oka, Y.I. and Yoshida, T., "Practical estimation of erosion
damage caused by solid particle impact: Part 2: Mechanical
properties of materials directly associated with erosion damage",
Wear,  Vol. 259, No. 1-6, (2005), 102-109. 
13. Zhang, Y., Application and improvement of computational fluid
dynamics (cfd) in solid particle erosion modeling; proquest.
2006, UMI Dissertations Publishing: Ann Arbor, MI, USA. 
14. Vieira, R.E., Mansouri, A., McLaury, B.S. and Shirazi, S.A.,
"Experimental and computational study of erosion in elbows due
to sand particles in air flow", Powder Technology,  Vol. 288,
(2016), 339-353. 
15. Khan, R., Ya, H.H. and Pao, W., "Numerical investigation of the
elbow angle effect on solid particle erosion for liquid-solid",
International Journal of Mechanical and Mechatronics
Engineering,  Vol. 19, No. 1, (2019), 1-13.