Erosion Mechanism and Sensitivity Parameter Analysis of Natural Gas Curved Pipeline

Abstract

With the deepening of natural gas exploitation, the problem of sand production in gas wells is becoming more and more serious, especially in high-yield gas wells. The solid particles in natural gas are very likely to cause erosion and wear of downstream pipelines and throttling manifolds, which makes the pipeline ineffective. Once the pipeline is damaged, the natural gas leaks, which may cause serious catastrophic accidents. In this paper, the impact of sand particles on the pipeline wall is predicted by the analysis of the research on bent and continuous pipeline combined with particle collision model. The parameters of different particles (particle shape factor, particle velocity, and particle diameter), different bent parameters (angle, diameter, and curvature-to-diameter ratio), and the influence of different continuous pipeline parameters (assembly spacing and angle) are explored on the erosion and wear mechanism of curved pipeline. The results show that the shape of the particles has a great influence on the wear of the curved pipeline. As the shape factor of the particles decreases, the wear tends to decrease. The bent area is subject to erosion changes as the particle parameters and piping parameters. The increase in pipeline diameter is beneficial to reduce the maximum and the average erosion wear rate. When the bent angle of the pipeline is less than 90 deg, the maximum erosion wear rate is basically the same. But when it is greater than 90 deg, it decreases with the increase in the bent angle. When the assembly angle of double curved pipeline is between 0 deg and 60 deg, the elbow is subject to severe erosion wear. At the same time, increasing the assembly spacing is beneficial to reduce the erosion wear rate. The research can provide a theoretical support for subsequent engineering applications.