Numerical investigation on the solid particle erosion in elbow with water–hydrate–solid flow

Erosion in pipeline caused by solid particles, which may lead to premature failure of the pipe system, is regarded as one of the most important concerns in the field of oil and gas. Therefore, the Euler–Lagrange, erosion model, and discrete phase model are applied for the purpose of simulating the erosion of water–hydrate–solid flow in submarine hydrate transportation pipeline. In this article, the flow and erosion characteristics are well verified on the basis of experiments. Moreover, analysis is conducted to have a good understanding of the effects of hydrate volume, mean curvature radius/pipe diameter (R/D) rate, flow velocity, and particle diameter on elbow erosion. It is finally obtained that the hydrate volume directly affects the Reynolds number through viscosity and the trend of the Reynolds number is consistent with the trend of erosion rate. Taking into account different R/D rates, the same Stokes number reflects different dynamic transforms of the maximum erosion zone. However, the outmost wall (zone D) will be the final erosion zone when the value of the Stokes number increases to a certain degree. In addition, the erosion rate increases sharply along with the increase of flow velocity and particle diameter. The effect of flow velocity on the erosion zone can be ignored in comparison with the particle diameter. Moreover, it is observed that flow velocity is deemed as the most sensitive factor on erosion rate among these factors employed in the orthogonal experiment.