An improved method combined modified drag model and modified erosion model based on LES for solid-liquid multiphase flow and erosion with application in a 90° elbow

In various industrial processes, solid-liquid multiphase flows involving continuous carrier and discrete particle phases have erosion challenges. In this work, a modified drag model that considers the influence of turbulence intensity and a modified erosion model that considers the effect of low-angle impact are developed. An improved method combined modified drag model and modified erosion model based on LES is proposed for numerical simulation of solid-liquid multiphase flow and erosion. The commercial software ICEM for grid generation and ANSYS FLUENT for LES are used in the present work. In validation test of velocity distribution of solid-liquid multiphase flow in a vertical pipe, the mean relative error of the liquid phase pulsation velocity is 10.01 % for modified drag model, whereas the mean relative error is 16.11 % for original drag model. In validation test of the maximum erosion depth from a submerged impact test at a tilt angle of 45 degrees, the relative error is 0.23 % for modified erosion model, while the relative error is 13.39 % for original erosion model. Then, the improved method is employed to compute the characteristics of solid-liquid flow and erosion in a 90 degrees elbow. Particles have a significant influence on liquid flow in the shear layer area where the inner arch separation zone interacts with the main flow, and this influence is most pronounced at the position of r* = 0.3 at yd = 0.4D. At this position, particles result in 15.27 % reduction in liquid velocity and 8.75 % increase in turbulence intensity. The mean relative error of the elbow erosion rate by using the improved method is 16.95 %, whereas it is 31.34 % of the reference work. The erosion is affected by impact velocity, angle, and particle number, and the most significant parameter is the particle number in the severe erosion area.