Erosion is a severe problem for many industries involved in the transport of fluids containing solid particles. In the oil and gas industry, sand present in the produced fluid can cause significant erosion resulting in failure. The severity of erosion depends on many factors such as the sand and fluid properties, pipe or fitting material and size, and sand and fluid production rates. Several researchers have investigated the effect of these factors and have proposed models that predict erosion very well, but these models are only applicable to geometries that redirect the flow such as elbows and tees. In these cases, the momentum of a particle carries it into the pipe wall resulting in erosion. Erosion can also occur in straight sections of pipe where turbulent fluctuations force the particles into the pipe wall. Currently, no simple model exists to predict erosion in straight pipes. The present work describes a simple model that can be used to predict penetration rates in straight pipes resulting from the turbulent energy of the flow. The new model accounts for a wide variety of factors such as sand, fluid, and pipe properties. This model uses an algorithmically efficient procedure to characterize the particle motion including the particle impingement information. Erosion equations specific to the pipe material can then be used to determine the penetration rate. The results obtained by applying the simple procedure for predicting erosion in straight pipes are compared to predicted results obtained by using a comprehensive flow modeling and particle tracking approach. Results from the efficient model are used to demonstrate the effect of several factors such as fluid properties, sand size, and flow velocity on the rate of erosion.
Predicting erosion in straight pipes
1998
Seiten
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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