Abstract
Erosion-corrosion is an ineluctable flow assurance problem confronted in hydrocarbon transportation and production systems. In this work, the effect of sand fines velocity on the erosion-corrosion behavior of AISI 1018 carbon steel long radius 90° elbows was experimentally and numerically investigated for liquid-solid flow conditions. Experiments were effectuated for sand fines of mean diameter 50 µm circulated in a flow loop with three different velocities (0.5, 1 and 2 m/s). To elucidate the erosion-corrosion mechanism and degradation rate, the material loss analysis, multilayer paint modeling (MPM) and microscopic imaging technique were employed, with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete phase modeling (DPM) also capacitating to evaluate the erosion distribution. It was perceived that increasing slurry velocity significantly changes the particle-wall impaction mechanism, leading to an increase in material degradation in the elbow bottom section up to 2 times in comparison to the low transport velocity. The erosion scars and pits development at the elbows internal surface was found to govern the wear mechanism in the carbon steel and made downstream section susceptible to erosion and corrosion. The material removal mechanisms were ascertained to change from cutting to pitting and plastic deformation with an increase of sand fines transportation velocity from 0.5 m/s to 2 m/s.
Highlights
In the hydrocarbon industry, sand fines are continually churned out together with production fluids
A thorough search of the relevant literature yielded limited research on the influence of sand fines transport speed on the erosion-corrosion mechanism of the 90-degree carbon steel long radius elbow configurations. Another inhibition found in the available erosion-corrosion literature on the elbow configurations is that there is no corroboration for the fount of erosion-corrosion due to the low transportation velocities. It has been confirmed from a review of the literature that the available studies focusing on the influence of sand fines on the erosion-corrosion of 90-degree carbon steel elbow are very limited
For the scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis, square samples of 10 mm size were cut from the test elbow inlet and outlet by wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) process after the erosion-corrosion test
Summary
Sand fines are continually churned out together with production fluids. A thorough search of the relevant literature yielded limited research on the influence of sand fines transport speed on the erosion-corrosion mechanism of the 90-degree carbon steel long radius elbow configurations. It has been confirmed from a review of the literature that the available studies focusing on the influence of sand fines on the erosion-corrosion of 90-degree carbon steel elbow are very limited Though it was reported in the direct impact test measurements that smaller particles significantly erode metals as well as it have a profound effect on the mechanistic behavior of the target material. The influence of sand fines velocity on carbon steel 90-degree long radius elbow erosion-corrosion mechanism in liquid-solid flow conditions for 0.5, 1 and 2 m/s flow velocities were studied using material loss analysis, microscopic imaging and multilayer paint modeling approach. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with discrete phase modeling (DPM) such as erosion rate distribution and particle tracking inside elbow computational domain were systematically studied to understand the erosion-corrosion phenomena
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