CFD modelling of pipe erosion due to sand transport.

Ogunsesan, Oluwademilade Adekunle; Hossain, Mamdud; Iyi, Draco; Dhroubi, Mohamed Ghazi

Abstract

Erosion caused by sand particles is a serious problem facing the oil and gas industry. Predicting pipe erosion due to sand transport is a complex process in multiphase flows due to the complex nature of the flow. Existing erosion studies are however focused on single phase flow conditions which are conservative and could lead to under-/over-engineering because actual fluid flow in pipelines is multiphase. There is therefore a need for in-depth analysis of the complex interaction between the multiphase fluid and transported sand particles. This study employs CFD modelling techniques to investigate the complex interactions between the multiphase fluid and transported sand particles in pipes, and the subsequent effect on pipe erosion rate and location under varying operating conditions. In view of this, the Eulerian Multifluid-VOF Model coupled with Interfacial Area Transport Equations have been employed to simulate air-water two phase flow and the result shows good agreement with experimental data. This fluid flow results have been employed in investigating sand erosion in multiphase flow through pipes. The Eulerian Multifluid-VOF model has been coupled with the Lagrangian framework for particle tracking and an appropriate erosion correlation has been employed to predict the pipe erosion rate. The pipe was observed to erode more 45° into the elbow and maximum erosion rate is 4.028e-6 kg/m2s. These results are in acceptable range when compared to available data. Erosion rate was also observed to be transient.

Citation

OGUNSESAN, O.A., HOSSAIN, M., IYI, D. and DHROUBI, M.G. 2018. CFD modelling of pipe erosion due to sand transport. In Wahab, M.A. (ed.) Proceedings of the 1st International conference on numerical modelling in engineering (NME 2018), 28-29 August 2018, Ghent, Belgium. Volume 2: numerical modelling in mechanical and materials engineering. Lecture notes in mechanical engineering. Singapore: Springer [online], pages 274-289. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2273-0_22

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 1st International conference on numerical modelling in engineering (NME 2018)
• Start Date: Aug 28, 2018
• End Date: Aug 29, 2018
• Acceptance Date: May 15, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 29, 2018
• Publication Date: Aug 29, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 16, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 30, 2019
• Print ISSN: 2195-4356
• Electronic ISSN: 2195-4364
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 274-289
• Series Title: Lecture notes in mechanical engineering
• Series ISSN: 2195-4364
• ISBN: 9789811322723
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2273-0_22
• Keywords: Erosion; Erosion rate; Multiphase flow; CFD
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/3178
• Contract Date: Oct 16, 2018