(751f) CFD Analysis for Boundary Effect of Particle Flow in Pipeline Manifold
AIChE Annual Meeting
2017
2017 Annual Meeting
Particle Technology Forum
Industrial Application of Computational and Numerical Approaches to Particle Flow II
Thursday, November 2, 2017 - 5:05pm to 5:27pm
CFD Analysis for Boundary Effect of Particle
Flow in Pipeline Manifold
Mohanrao Rampure
SABIC Technology & Innovation, SPADC
Center, Riyadh (KSA) 11551
Gaseous feed
stocks in Petrochemical plants has limits on impurities such as; undesired
hydrocarbon gas/condensate components, and solid particles to ensure the
performance and reliability of downstream unit operation. Pipelines contains iron
oxides corrosion/erosion materials, and hydrocarbon condensate droplets carried
by feedstock pipelines to plants systems that can be detrimental to the
continued safe and reliable plant operation and business profitability. Solid
particles and condensate droplets in gaseous feedstock streams tend to
separates and re-distribute unevenly from main flows when feedstock is branched
through distribution networks piping systems and headers. Design, sizing, and layout
of feedstock receiving and filtration/cleaning systems becomes important to effectively
capture these impurities and protect downstream plant operation. In this study,
a multiphase solid/gas flow assessment in and industrial scale natural gas
feedstock header is considered. This main header is branched into three smaller
pipes of different sizes. Pipe branches travel in various size diameters based
on the different plant capacity downstream. 3D CFD model is developed to
determine the multiphase flow distribution between the branches along with a
parametric study to assess the flow sensitivity to increased solid particles loading.
Figure 1 below shows the geometry and velocity vector plot for the gas phase. The
boundary conditions and CFD geometry to be considered plays an important role
determining the particulate distribution at the outlet manifold. Particles such
as iron oxides and oil droplets are studied to analyze the particles flow
mal-distribution exiting the main header. The particles are solved in the
Lagrangian frame of reference while the gas in Eulerian frame.