Numerical analysis of erosion wear and pressure drop for turbulent multiphase slurry flow

The disposal of ash in a thermal plant through the slurry pipe is subjected to some erosion wear due to the abrasive characteristics of the slurry. A simulation study of particle-liquid erosion of mild steel pipe wall based on CFD-FLUENT that considers the solid-liquid, solid-solid and solid-wall interaction is presented in this work.The multi-phase Euler-Lagrange model with standard k- ϵ turbulence modeling is adopted to predict the particulate erosion wear caused by the flow of bottom ash water suspension. Erosion rate for different particle size and concentration is evaluated at variable flow rate. It is observed that the pressure drop and erosion rate share direct relationships with flow velocity, particle size and concentration. The flow velocity is found to be the most influencing parameter. A model capable of predicting the erosion wear at variable operating conditions is presented.The simulation findings show good agreement with the published findings.