Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Erosion Behavior in Elbow Pipes for Multiphase Flow Conditions

Abstract

Sand erosion is a critical issue in the hydrocarbon industry. The pipelines used for transporting oil and gas face severe erosive damage issues. Initially, erosive wear causes partial damage to the flow-changing devices in the pipeline system. With time, the severity of erosive wear enhances and causes a complete breakdown. The severity of erosive damage depends on several parameters like flow velocity, particle size, concentration, material property, elbow geometry, and flow phases. This research work involved extensive investigations in analyzing erosive wear in 180° elbows numerically and experimentally. Multi-layer paint modeling (MPM) technique was used to identify erosion hot spots. The influence of velocity, particle size, and concentration was investigated in this research study. The erosion rate was quantified as mass loss and thickness reduction for different operating conditions. Optical profilometry was performed to analyze the influence of erosion rate on the surface roughness of a 180° elbow made of carbon steel. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analyses were performed to examine the microscopic mechanism of erosive wear and elemental composition after the erosion test in 180° elbows. The experimental results were then validated numerically using ANSYS fluent. A good agreement was seen between numerical and experimental results.