Study on the erosion performance of high-pressure double elbow based on experiment and numerical simulation

Abstract

Fluctuating stress of material strongly influences erosion to some extent, especially for high-pressure pipelines. However, this important influence is usually ignored due to strict experimental conditions. Therefore, erosion experiments under fluctuating stresses were conducted in this study, and the damage mechanism was observed by scanning electron microscopy. According to erosion data, a novel prediction equation involving fluctuating stresses and high concentrations was developed, which was adopted to simulate erosion of double elbow by sand-carrying fluid at different velocities, internal pressures, particle sizes and concentrations. The results indicated that the increase in fluctuating stress levels increased the erosion ratio, and that the effect of erosion factors on the second elbow was far more complex than that on the first elbow.