Research on reducing erosion by adding ribs on the wall in particulate two-phase flows

Abstract

In the particulate two-phase flow with smooth wall and rib-welding wall, improved κ-ϵ turbulence model and one-way coupling method are employed to compute particle velocities and trajectories, and wall wastage caused by particle impacts. In order to verify the computational results, an apparatus is designed and corresponding experiment is made. Both computational and experimental results show that adding ribs on the wall can reduce wall erosion caused by particle impacts in the particulate two-phase flow. The wall wastage does not vary linearly as rib height. Under a definite rib height, it is most beneficial to reduce erosion when rib width is equal to gap between ribs. For a definite flow, in the region with relative small particle size, the variety of wastage rate changes steeply, whereas particle size exceeds a criterion, the wastage rate changes smoothly. The initial angle of motion direction between particles and gas affects the wall wastage.