ABSTRACT
Erosion in pipe bends or elbow joint due to impacting slurry flow always remains a major problem for various industries with its underlying safety threat and economic integrity. CFD-based simulation of slurry flows in pipe elbow considering the effect of particle size and particle concentration on the erosion rate is studied at different inlet slurry velocities. In the present study, a standard k-ε turbulence model is used for simulation along with DPM to exactly track the particle–particle, liquid–particle, and particle–wall interaction during the flow. The CFD results are also validated with the experimental results of previous papers, and they shows good agreement with the experimental data. The results indicate that erosion rate depends mainly on particle size and particle concentration along with flowing slurry velocity. The model represented can be utilized in industrial flow applications for forecasting the internal material damage by solid–liquid slurry flow in the pipe elbow.
