Simulation of Abrasion Characteristics of Polar Ship Seawater Pipelines under the Coupling of Ice Particles and Vibration

Abstract

Under the erosion of seawater–ice two-phase flow, seawater in pipelines of polar ships can cause the pipeline failures that threaten the safety of navigations. The discrete phase model (DPM) and erosion wear model (EWM) were established by using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method for numerical analysis of the 90° elbow with relatively severe erosion. This paper explores the erosion effect of pipelines under different conditions and puts forward optimal measures for pipeline protection. Compared with the existing multiphase flow research, the novelty of this study is that vibration conditions are considered and parameters such as two-phase flow velocity, ice packing factor (IPF), ice particle diameter and ice particle rotation characteristics are combined with vibration conditions. Combined with the comprehensive analysis of erosion effects of static pipelines, a general law of seawater pipeline wear under vibration is obtained. The results show that pipeline wear under vibration is more serious than under static conditions. Under static conditions, the wear of the same section in the pipeline increases with the increases of two-phase flow velocity and IPF. However, under vibration conditions, when the velocity is less than 3 m/s, the wear of the pipeline has no significant change, while when the velocity is over 3 m/s, the wear rate increases significantly. The particle diameter has little effect on the wear of static pipes, but under the vibration condition, the pipe wear rate decreases with the increase of particle diameter, and it starts to stabilize when the diameter exceeds 0.3 mm. If the rotation characteristics of ice particles are taken into account, the wear rate along the pipeline is significantly higher than that without particle rotation.