Determination of Safe Erosion Conditions in the Elbows of a Desalination Unit of a Refinery

Erosion occurs due to the transportation of very fine particles in fluid flow such as oil and gas pipelines, which could lead to serious damage to them. In this study, erosion phenomena is modeled using the COMSOL software. Three applied industrial models, namely Finnie, DNV and ECRC in turbulent fluid flow have been applied. The effects of fluid velocity including 5, 10 and 20 m/s, solid particles diameter including 120, 170 and 220 microns, and injecting sand flow rates including 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 kg/h on the amount of erosion have been investigated. The three models show almost the same area in the external radius section of the elbow, as the region of most susceptible to erosion. The results show that increasing the fluid velocity, solid particles diameter and injection flow rate of solid particle boosts the erosion at the elbows.