CFD-based erosion modelling of sand screen using dense discrete phase model: Investigating carrier fluid type effect

Abstract

Sand screens that are widely used in petroleum industry, can fail due to erosion. Since carrying fluid type can have a considerable effect on erosion, in this study, dense discrete phase model (DDPM) was utilized to model sand screen erosion using a CFD-based technique under air, water, and oil flows with four different sand types. The results showed that, erosion was much greater in liquid flows than in air flows. For liquids flows, erosion increases as the uniformity and the sorting coefficients of sand decrease. It has been concluded that, when sand contains various sizes under a certain fluid type, the significance and contribution of particles related parameters on erosion depend on sorting and uniformity of the produced sand.