Influence of flow limiter and grain shape factor of sand particles on erosion activity in pipeline

Abstract

Abstract Erosion has been evaluated as the main cause of failure in pipework. The focus of this work is the effect of erosion activity on two-phase flow (solid-liquid) condition. Pressure distribution of liquid flow, velocity profile of liquid flow and trajectories of sand particles are scrutinized. Based on the experimental data, different limiter pipeline was simulated to validate the data and an overall grain shape factor of 0.265 was obtained. From the qualitative and quantitative analysis of grain shape factor (GSF), it was identified that the 75 % of sand are composed of high sphericity particles (GSF=0.2), 25 % of sand composed of slightly lower sphericity particles (GSF=0.45). For the simulation work, the fluid flow rate, grain shape factor and sand concentration is altered ranging between 25 litres/s to 50 litres/s, 0.2 to 1.0 and 0.5 % to 1.0 % respectively. Through ANOVA analysis and it demonstrated the significant influence on erosion activity in descending order (fluid flow rate > shape factor > sand concentration). After numerical optimization, the minimum erosion activity on limiter was obtained by obeying the settings of fluid flow rate, shape factor and sand concentration as 50 litres/s, 0.2 and 1.0 % respectively.