Erosion due to particulate flow in pipe bends

The erosion in pipe bends due to particulate flow has beentheoretically studied. A three dimensional steady two phaseturbulent flow model was developed to predict the erosion ina 90(’ pipe bend. This model includes sub-models forparticle-flow interaction, particles collision, turbulenceand particle erosion.The particle-flow interaction has been expressed using thediscrete particle technique. This enabled to account for thetwo - way coupling terms exist between the flow and theparticles. Also, particles collision has been consideredusing a stochastic collision model. A turbulence model isdeveloped based on the selection between the Large EddySimulation (LES) and the k-c models based on the eddy size.Furthermore, the effects of particles on the turbulence havebeen considered. These appear as a destruction term in theturbulent kinetic energy and its dissipation rate equationsand an expression for pseudo-turbulence added to the dynamicviscosity. The latter is based on particle loading ratioand size. The cutting and deformation model for erosionprediction has been used to calculate the erosion parameterE, which represents the mass eroded to the mass of theimpinging particles. This necessitates a development for amodel to calculate both the angles and the velocities of therestituted particles.