Numerical Analysis on Solid Particle Erosion in Elbow of a Slurry Conveying Circuit

Abstract

This study investigates the solid particle erosion in an elbow of a slurry conveying circuit by using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT. Erosion wear was predicted by using the Euler-Lagrange model applied with a turbulence scheme of standard k-ε. In the present study, the effect of various design parameters, namely radius of bend-to-pipe diameter (r/D) ratio, pipe diameter (D), bend curvature angle, and bend radius angle, was studied. The radius of the r/D ratio varied from 1.4 to 1.7. The flow velocity varied between 2 and 5 m/s and the solid concentration was kept constant, i.e., 10 vol.%. The mean size fraction of bottom ash varied from 102 to 300 μm. Numerical simulation results show that erosion rate increases with velocity, particle size, and pipe diameter. The optimum value of the r/D ratio was between 1.5 and 1.6. Lower erosion wear occurred near the entrance of the elbow and reached the maximum near 60° of the bend curvature. The particle size range of 162–230 μm was found critical for high erosion wear.