Erosion prediction due to micron-sized particles in the multiphase flow of T and Y pipes of oil and gas fields

Abstract

The industrial pipeline components in the hydrocarbon and mineral processing plants may suffer erosion-induced damage and easily causes pipeline failure. This paper investigates a computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-Discrete particle (DP) modeling based on erosion prediction assessment of Tee (T) and Wye (Y) pipe configurations for gas-sand and water-sand flow conditions. The erosion under vertical-horizontal orientation was comprehensively investigated for 90° T-pipe, 45° Y-pipe, 30° Y-pipe, and 15° Y-pipe for different particle sizes. Finnie model is employed to evaluate the erosion rate and validated using qualitative and quantitative experimental results for the 90° T-pipe. Results manifest that the erosive wear is strongly influenced by the geometric configuration and erodent size. Particle trajectories show that particles in a 90° T-pipe tend to impact the junction of the pipe and rebound 2 to 3 times, which leads to a maximum erosion zone. The movement path of sand in the T-pipe is different from those of the Y-pipe, and one particle rebound is observed in the Y-pipe. Furthermore, the maximum erosive wear rate in the 15° Y-pipe is 3.36 times smaller than that of the 90° T-pipe.