Numerical calculations of erosion in an abrupt pipe contraction of different contraction ratios

M. A. Habib*, H. M. Badr, R. Ben-Mansour, S. A.M. Said

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Erosion predictions in a pipe with abrupt contraction of different contraction ratios for the special case of two-phase (liquid and solid) turbulent flow with low particle concentration are presented. A mathematical model based on the time-averaged governing equations of 2-D axi-symmetric turbulent flow is used for the calculations of the fluid velocity field (continuous phase). The particle-tracking model of the solid particles is based on the solution of the governing equation of each particle motion taking into consideration the effect of particle rebound behaviour. Models of erosion were used to predict the erosion rate in mg/g. The effect of Reynolds number and flow direction with respect to the gravity was investigated for three contraction geometries considering water flow in a carbon steel pipe. The results show that the influence of the contraction ratio on local erosion is very significant. However, this influence becomes insignificant when the average erosion rates over the sudden contraction area are considered. The results also indicate the significant influence of inlet velocity variations. The influence of buoyancy is significant for the cases of low velocity of the continuous flow. A threshold velocity below which erosion may be neglected was indicated.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)19-35
Number of pages17
JournalInternational Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids
Volume46
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Sep 2004

Keywords

  • Contraction ratios
  • Erosion
  • Numerical calculation
  • Pipe contraction

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computational Mechanics
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Applied Mathematics

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