CFD Evaluation of Bend Angle Effects on Sand Particle Erosion in Multiphase Flows

In many industrial applications, gas-liquid-particle three-phase flows are observed. Predicting erosion damage in this type of flow is a challenging issue, and so many factors, such as the liquid film behavior have significant effects on the erosion rate. In the present study, the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach was implemented to study the process of sand particle erosion in elbows with different bend angles. For this purpose, gas and liquid phases under annular flow conditions were introduced at the pipe inlet, and the volume of fluid (VOF) method was employed to solve the governing equations. For evaluating the erosion rate, the Det Norske Veritas (DNV) model was applied. The predicted erosion results for the bend angles of 30°, 60° and 90° at different orientations were compared with those of the two-phase gas-particle flows. The simulation results indicated that for gas-liquid-particle flow, the behavior of film thickness in the bend plays a major role on the particle impact velocity and the corresponding erosion rates. By comparing the impact characteristics for gas and liquid superficial velocities of 40 and 0.4 m/s, respectively, in the 90° elbow, it was found that the impact velocities for gas-particle and gas-liquid-particle flows at the erosion hotspot are 38 and 14 m/s, respectively. In addition, among the studied geometries, the 30° elbow is the most erosion-resistant bend angle configuration among those studied for both two- and three-phase flows.