BENCHMARK STUDY OF CFD-BASED PREDICTION ACCURACY OF THE MODELS EVALUATING PARTICLE AND DROPLET INDUCED EROSION FOR ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS

The particles (including solid particles and liquid droplets) existing in multi-phase flow in process plants can cause erosion due to flow turbulence, and thus, result in pipe wall thinning. Hence, it is important to evaluate erosion rate for determining design margin and finding counter-measures. Many models have been proposed for predicting particles induced erosion rate, but there is significant disparity in their prediction accuracy. The present study aims to verify prediction accuracy of some major erosion models utilizing the published experimental data, for applications to engineering. CFD benchmark study was conducted for three different piping geometries to investigate prediction accuracy of solid particle induced erosion rates for five major erosion models. CFD results show that the erosion rates predicted by Grant & Tabakoff model are closest to the experimental results with acceptable prediction accuracy for applications to engineering. Also, CFD benchmark study was also performed to verify the prediction accuracy of droplet induced erosion rates for three erosion models, utilizing the published experimental data. CFD results show that the erosion rates predicted by Haugen model for all the water impingement velocities are closest to the experimental results with acceptable prediction accuracy for applications to engineering.