Simulation study on impact of fine sand particle to 90° steel elbow in pipe

Erosion has caused a lot of troubles and challenges in oil and gas industry. Erosion caused by solid particles in 90° pipe bends is one of the major concern in this industry. This problem may result in equipment malfunction and failure which needs to be maintained and replaced. Until today, there is no comprehensive solution on how to overcome this problem. Continuous simulation and experimentation are needed to reduce the rate of erosion. In this paper, the erosion effect is studied through simulation process. The simulation studied the effect of fine sand particles on the 90° carbon steel elbow in the pipeline. The result of this simulation is investigated and analyzed and the rate of erosion is correlated with the particle mass flow rate, particle size and elbow ratio. This study will be limited to two phases of flow and fine particles are used. The simulation is done using the computational dynamic software which is ANSYS Fluent. The results show that mass particle flow rate will give the significant effect on the erosion rate. The erosion rate will increase exponentially when the particle mass flow rate increases.Erosion has caused a lot of troubles and challenges in oil and gas industry. Erosion caused by solid particles in 90° pipe bends is one of the major concern in this industry. This problem may result in equipment malfunction and failure which needs to be maintained and replaced. Until today, there is no comprehensive solution on how to overcome this problem. Continuous simulation and experimentation are needed to reduce the rate of erosion. In this paper, the erosion effect is studied through simulation process. The simulation studied the effect of fine sand particles on the 90° carbon steel elbow in the pipeline. The result of this simulation is investigated and analyzed and the rate of erosion is correlated with the particle mass flow rate, particle size and elbow ratio. This study will be limited to two phases of flow and fine particles are used. The simulation is done using the computational dynamic software which is ANSYS Fluent. The results show that mass particle flow rate will give the significant ...