Study on erosion wear of fracturing pipeline under the action of multiphase flow in oil & gas industry

Abstract

During hydraulic fracturing operations, pipelines are especially prone to particle erosion caused by high-rate pumping fracturing fluid. Previous studies likely ignore the stress state of equipment during the erosion wear process. In this study, fracturing pipeline erosion was evaluated under the action of multiphase flow through both experimental study and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. Firstly, a new erosion wear test rig which can apply tensile stress on erosion samples was developed to indicate the failure mechanism and main parameters of erosion influence factor. The results indicate the erosion wear was greatly influenced by different states of stress. Secondly, according to the experimental results and fluid dynamic theory, the flow mode and erosion simulation model were established. The flow characteristic of particles in fracturing pipe can be described as comprehensive effects of centrifugal force, turbulent diffusion, main stream and secondary flow carrying effect. Based on the CFD simulation, the erosion distribution of pipes was also obtained. Finally, the correlation of erosion wear results from CFD simulation, experimental study, and field situation was validated in this study.