Numerical prediction of particle erosion of pipe bends

Numerical Simulation of Gas-Solid Two-Phase Erosion for Elbow and Tee Pipe in Gas Field

Erosion caused by solid particles in a pipeline is one of the main problems endangering the safety production of the oil and gas industry, which may lead the equipment to malfunction or even fail. However, most of the previous studies focused on the standard elbow, and the erosion law of right-angle elbow and blind tee is rarely reported in the literature. This work aims to investigate the erosion law of different pipeline structures including 90° elbow, right-angle pipe, and tee pipe based on the production characteristics and engineering parameters of the gas field. An integrated CFD-DPM method is established including a realizable k-ε turbulence model, discrete phase model, and erosion rate prediction model. The accuracy of the model is evaluated by a series of experimental data of flow conditions of our previous work. Further, the erosion rate, pressure distributions, and particle trajectories in 90° elbow, right-angle pipe, and tee pipe under different flow velocities, particle mass flow rate, pipe diameter are investigated by applying the presented model. The results show that the blind tee has the most obvious growth rate, and the most serious erosion is located in the blind end of the pipe wall. The maximum erosion rate of the 1.5D is greater than that of the 3D elbow as a whole, and the 1.5D elbow is more concentrated in the serious erosion area. Furthermore, the erosion rate of the bend weld is much greater than that of the straight pipe weld. This study can provide a basis for the selection of different structural pipe fittings, thereby reducing the pipeline erosion rate and improving the integrity of the management of gas pipelines.

Strive to Reduce Slurry Erosion and Cavitation in Pumps Through Flow Modifications, Design Optimization and Some Other Techniques: Long Term Impact on Process Industry

Centrifugal pumps are being widely used in various industries for moving fluids that carry solids through pipelines where the need of head and flow rate is not high. Slurry erosion and cavitation are an extremely complex and not yet fully understood phenomenon that occur in centrifugal pumps; however, these undesirable phenomena can be reduced to a certain extent. Appropriate design and development of experiments is required to reasonably predict slurry erosion and cavitation. However, CFD methodology complements analytical solutions and experiments whenever testing of equipment has limitations. The current paper highlights the various slurry erosion and cavitation reduction techniques utilized by different researchers. Economic analysis conducted for a case study relevant to centrifugal pump (CP) usage in Pakistan shows that an 8% enhancement in pump efficiency can reduce the life cycle cost to about 17.6%, which could save up to USD 4281 for a single pump annually in Pakistan.