The effect of surface profile on the sand erosion of aluminium

Abstract

Management and prediction of sand erosion on oil and gas equipment are important for the safety, reliability and maintenance of the production facility. Prediction of sand erosion is not a trivial task as it requires an understanding of the fluid flow-field, movement of abrasive particles in this flow-field and their subsequent impact on the target material surface. It is reasonable to assume that once sand erosion occurs on a surface, the rate of erosion would be constant. This is not always the case since the surface topography may change over time. An experiment investigating the sand erosion of a hole centred in a rectangular aluminium plate was designed to explore this phenomenon. The sample was subject to erosion by two 50 kg batches of sand; surface profiles of the hole were measured after each batch. The results suggest that a pre-eroded surface has an increased change of erosion depth compared with a new surface. As erosion progresses, the geometry of the sample alters and, depending on location, the change of erosion depth, relative to the previously eroded profile, on the sample surface varied from -30-50%; slight material build-up occurred on the inner face of the hole due to extrusion processes during erosion.