Pipe Erosion

due to Contaminant
Particles

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Background and Motivation
Erosion often occurs in pipe bends,
tube constrictions, and other
structures that alter the flow field.
In this model, particle tracing and
wall erosion boundary conditions are
used to estimate the mass loss due
to erosion on a pipe elbow.
 Geometry
The model
symmetry is used
to reduce the
computational cost
of the model.
The diameter of the
pipe is 0.2m. The
90 degree bend
has a radius of
0.5m.
Physics Interfaces - Turbulent Flow
A RANS turbulence
model is used due
to the flow high
Reynolds number.
Because of the
curvature in the
geometry, the k-w
turbulence is the
most appropriate
turbulence model.
Boundary Conditions Flow
Symmetry

Inlet

Outlet
 Boundary Conditions Inlet
A one-seventh
power law
velocity profile is
defined at the
inlet.
The turbulent
length scale at
the inlet is set to
7% of the inlet
diameter.
Physics Interfaces Particle Tracing
The particle
tracing interface
is used to model
the contaminant
particles.
The wall erosion
features compute
the mass loss
due to particles
hitting the wall.
Physics Interfaces Particle Tracing

Release type
is set to
static to
model a
constant mass
flow rate of
particles.
Physics Interfaces Particle Tracing

Three different
erosion models
are specified:
Finnie
DNV
E/CRC
Boundary Conditions Inlet
The particle
mass flow rate
at the inlet is
set to 0.6kg/h.
The initial
velocity of the
particles is set
to the velocity
of the fluid.
Boundary Conditions Symmetry

A bounce wall
boundary
condition is used
as a symmetry
boundary
condition for the
particle tracing
physics.
 Meshing
A structured
mesh reduces the
computational
cost of the model.
The boundary
layer mesh
ensures that the
turbulent wall
boundary layer is
well resolved.
 Study Settings
Since the particles
do not affect the
flow field, this
model first solves
the flow field in
study 1
(stationary), before
computing the
erosion process in
study 2 (time
dependent).
Study 2 uses a
direct solver with
 Results
Velocity (m/s) Pressure (Pa)
Particle positions at t=0.5s
 Erosion rate
The full geometry
is built in
postprocessing
using a mirror
dataset feature.
This graph shows
the erosion rate, in
kg/(m^2*s), for the
Finnie model.