Numerical investigation of the location of maximum erosive wear damage in elbow: Effect of slurry velocity, bend orientation and angle of elbow

A numerical simulation of fluid transportation process was carried out focused on the investigation into predicting the location of the puncture point location in elbow. The kinematics and trajectory of the discrete particles as well as the particle-particle interaction were described by discrete element method (DEM) while the hydrodynamic model of the fluid phase was based on the volume-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, and a fluid density-based buoyancy model was adopted to calculate the solid-fluid interaction force. In this paper, the spatial distribution of particle-wall interaction force was calculated and corresponded to the wear pattern in the elbow, the puncture point locations have been observed. In particular, the influences of slurry velocity, bend orientation and angle of elbow on the puncture point location were discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.