Fine Particles Erosion - Experiments and CFD Analysis

Erosion due to fine particles (2 to 50 microns) occurs in oil sands, off shore oil & gas and in refinery operations. This phenomenon has not been studied extensively. Reliable methods to predict erosion in such scenarios are not readily available. A common assumption is that fine particles may not cause erosion since the particle sizes and hence mass is very small. Controlled lab studies have shown this is not the case. In this presentation, results from erosion experiments performed in a 2 inch flow loop with fine sand particles size are discussed. CFD methods are used for predicting erosion. For large particles these methods have been validated. In this work, various CFD based erosion models available in the literature are tested and compared with fine particle experimental data.