Wear Prediction in Fully Developed Multi-Size Particulate Flow in Horizontal Pipelines

Abstract

Erosion wear prediction in fully developed multi-size particulate flow through horizontal pipes is carried out numerically using Galerkin finite element methodology. The predicted multi-size particulate flow field near the pipe wall is correlated with wear rates via empirically determined wear coefficients. The wear models for particle impact and sliding take into account the broad particle size distribution. The effects of various operating parameters such as flow rate, solids concentration, solids density, particle size, particle size distribution and so forth has been studied. Normalized predicted wear rates are compared with published experimental results and are found to be within an average error of 16.5% with respect to experimental observations. Different wear trends with different flow parameters indicate the existence of a very complex relationship between wear rate and the flow governing parameters. A major conclusion is that accurate wear prediction could be obtained by characterizing the particle size distribution into suitable number of size classes, and accounting for the particle-size dependence in the wear model(s).