Computer simulation of developing erosion profiles including interference effects

A computer simulation was developed to predict the evolution of abrasive jet machined surfaces in unmasked substrates. Interference effects were included in the model by tracking individual particles and their collisions. The model was capable of investigating the effect of various parameters such as launch frequency, abrasive particle size and material and substrate material on the shape and size of the erosion profile, as a function of time. The model is also able to examine the effect of these parameters and the instantaneous shape of the profile on the particle interference patterns. The model was verified, for the case of a flat non eroding surface, against an existing computer simulation of particle interference effects. The predictions of the simulation were also tested against experimentally measured erosion profiles, with good agreement.

Computer simulation of developing erosion profiles including interference effects

A computer simulation was developed to predict the evolution of abrasive jet machined surfaces in unmasked substrates. Interference effects were included in the model by tracking individual particles and their collisions. The model was capable of investigating the effect of various parameters such as launch frequency, abrasive particle size and material and substrate material on the shape and size of the erosion profile, as a function of time. The model is also able to examine the effect of these parameters and the instantaneous shape of the profile on the particle interference patterns. The model was verified, for the case of a flat non eroding surface, against an existing computer simulation of particle interference effects. The predictions of the simulation were also tested against experimentally measured erosion profiles, with good agreement.

EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL EVALUATION OF THE EFFECT OF PARTICLE SIZE ON SLURRY EROSION PREDICTION

During petroleum production, sand particles can be entrained with the transported carrier fluid despite of any sand exclusion process and erode the inner walls of pipelines. This erosion process may even cause pipe leakage and oil spill. Therefore, investigate the regularities of erosion damage changing with particle sizes and predict erosion behavior under different sizes particles are important to pipeline safety. In this study, slurry erosion experiments are conducted using quartz particles with similar shapes and different sizes ranging from 25 micrometers to 600 micrometers to investigate the effect of particle size on erosion profiles and provide the database for evaluating models. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used to simulate the fluid flow and track particles to obtain impact information. Erosion equations then connect the particles' impact information with erosion rate. Finally, the available mechanistic and empirical equations erosion models are evaluated by comparing predicted erosion profile with experimental data. It was found that the local maximum erosion damage increases with particle sizes although the total erosion ratio is not increasing. These changes of erosion profiles can be predicted with acceptable accuracy by available empirical erosion models when particle sizes are no less than 75 micrometers.