Numerical Simulation of Gas-Solid Two-Phase Erosion for Elbow and Tee Pipe in Gas Field

Abstract

Erosion caused by solid particles in a pipeline is one of the main problems endangering the safety production of the oil and gas industry, which may lead the equipment to malfunction or even fail. However, most of the previous studies focused on the standard elbow, and the erosion law of right-angle elbow and blind tee is rarely reported in the literature. This work aims to investigate the erosion law of different pipeline structures including 90° elbow, right-angle pipe, and tee pipe based on the production characteristics and engineering parameters of the gas field. An integrated CFD-DPM method is established including a realizable k-ε turbulence model, discrete phase model, and erosion rate prediction model. The accuracy of the model is evaluated by a series of experimental data of flow conditions of our previous work. Further, the erosion rate, pressure distributions, and particle trajectories in 90° elbow, right-angle pipe, and tee pipe under different flow velocities, particle mass flow rate, pipe diameter are investigated by applying the presented model. The results show that the blind tee has the most obvious growth rate, and the most serious erosion is located in the blind end of the pipe wall. The maximum erosion rate of the 1.5D is greater than that of the 3D elbow as a whole, and the 1.5D elbow is more concentrated in the serious erosion area. Furthermore, the erosion rate of the bend weld is much greater than that of the straight pipe weld. This study can provide a basis for the selection of different structural pipe fittings, thereby reducing the pipeline erosion rate and improving the integrity of the management of gas pipelines.