Modeling erosion process in elbows of petroleum pipelines using large eddy simulation

• Published in: Journal of petroleum science & engineering Vol. 211; p. 110216
• Main Authors: Wang, Qiuchen, Ba, Xili, Huang, Qiyu, Wang, Nianrong, Wen, Yunhao, Zhang, Zhe, Sun, Xu, Yang, Lyu, Zhang, Jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.04.2022
• Subjects: Computational fluid dynamics; Elbow; Large eddy simulation; Maximum erosion rate; Slurry erosion; Large eddy simulation; Computational fluid dynamics; Maximum erosion rate; Slurry erosion; Elbow
• ISSN: 0920-4105; 1873-4715
• DOI: 10.1016/j.petrol.2022.110216

Elbows are widely used in piping systems to change the direction of flow. However, it is also extremely susceptible to erosive damage, which may lead to the leakage of petroleum and gas pipelines. Therefore, revealing the erosion process and accurately predicting erosion rate are of great importance to pipeline safety. In this study, the unsteady slurry erosion process in the 90° elbow is investigated numerically using LES Eulerian-Lagrangian methodology. The Large eddy simulation (LES) is coupled with Lagrangian particle tracking to simulate slurry flow and erosion process in elbows. The erosion prediction model is validated using experimental data before investigating the unsteady erosion process in elbows with different radius. The results show that the unsteady secondary flow can be precisely captured using LES and thus the prediction accuracy of the fluid flow velocities and turbulent intensities are improved by this model comparing to RANS. The particles movement coupled with the unsteady secondary flow and boundary separation in elbows with different radius can be successfully revealed using this methodology. The LES Eulerian-Langragian erosion model presented is helpful to understand the flow and slurry erosion in elbows and improve the accuracy of the CFD-based prediction of slurry erosion rate. •A LES Eulerian-Lagrangian methodology erosion model in elbow is constructed. The turbulent intensities caused by the secondary flow within the elbow and the unsteady erosion process can be successfully captured.•The intensity of secondary flow is lower and the boundary separation does not occur in the longer elbows. Therefore, particles move parallel near the intrados of the elbow inside wall with low velocities and cause extremely low erosion rate.•The maximum erosion hot spot remains at the outside of the outlet elbow although the curvatures varies. The maximum erosion rate decreases 38% as the elbow curvatures increases changes from 1D to 3D due to the decrease of particle impact angles.