Numerical simulation of particle erosion in the vertical-upward-horizontal elbow under multiphase bubble flow

Abstract

Pipe erosion is one of the main reasons for oil leakage and safety accidents in many engineering fields. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of gas volume fraction, elbow angle and rib installation position on pipe erosion under multiphase bubble flow. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation approach based on volume of fluid (VOF) model and discrete phase model (DPM) was adopted to analyze the effect of gas-liquid distribution and particle movement on pipe erosion under different gas volume fractions. A good agreement of pipe erosion distribution was observed between the simulation results and measurement values. Furthermore, the CFD simulation results show that the pipe erosion rate increases rapidly as the gas volume fraction increases. The erosion rate also increases as the elbow angle increases from 15° to 90°. The rib at small installation position angles can protect the pipe from the direct impact of particles.