Performance prediction of erosion in elbows for slurry flow under high internal pressure

Abstract

Slurry erosion is an important cause of material failure in the oil and gas industry. Particularly, during hydraulic fracturing, the fracturing pipelines under high internal pressure inevitably suffer from erosion wear. In this study, the erosion tests involving tensile stress were carried out and a new stress-erosion model suitable for high internal pressure was developed based on the experimental data. Then the established erosion model was applied to conduct the numerical simulation to investigate the erosion behaviour in elbows of fracturing pipeline under different conditions. Finally, an intelligent method of erosion prediction was explored using machine learning technology, providing a potential solution in predicting the erosion severity of elbows under high internal pressure.