Numerical analysis of particle erosion in the rectifying plate system during shale gas extraction

Abstract

Erosion caused by sand particles in the pipe system is a major concern in the shale gas industry. In the rectifying plate system, the fluid with high Reynolds number is assumed to be the fully turbulent flow. To investigate particle erosion under the complex flow in the rectifying plate system, various erosion simulations are conducted in this study. Because the gas velocity, sand input, particles size, and particles shape can affect the erosion in rectifying system, the effect of gas velocities (5‐30 m/s), sand inputs (50‐400 kg/d), and particle parameters (various particle sizes and various particle shapes) on erosion is simulated. Moreover, the erosion experiment conducted in Tulsa University is used to verify the accuracy of simulation model. Through the calculation and analysis, it is obtained that different gas velocities will change the position where the max erosion rate appears. Various sand inputs lead to different max erosion rates. In addition, the effect of sand input on the distribution of erosion scars on rectifying plate is more obvious than that of on elbows. Finally, the effect of size and shape of particles on erosion is investigated. It is found that with the increase in particle diameter, the shape of erosion scar on elbow 1 changes gradually from an ellipse to the V‐shape.

Analysis of particle deposition in a new‐type rectifying plate system during shale gas extraction

“…In shale gas extraction, the turbulent flow in pipe due to the unstable pressure and velocity lead to lower precision in gas measurement. Hence, the rectifying plate is always used to stabilize the fluid in order to improve the measurement accuracy . At the start of shale gas extraction, the large amount of sand particles carried by shale gas is high to 10 tons per day .…”

“…7,8 At the start of shale gas extraction, the large amount of sand particles carried by shale gas is high to 10 tons per day. 8 To ensure the quality of shale gas, sand separators are always used in process of desanding. However, if the separator breaks down, the desanding efficiency of it will be greatly affected, which means more sand particles may possibly enter another devices.…”

Numerical simulation and simplified calculation method for heat exchange performance of dry air cooler in natural gas pipeline compressor station

“…At present, many scholars have used Fluent flow field analysis software to conduct a large number of numerical simulation calculations on air cooler, pipeline, and other flow fields, proving the feasibility of this method. [31][32][33][34][35][36] Therefore, this paper adopts the numerical simulation method, taking the dry air cooler configured in the West-East Natural Gas Pipeline II as an example, using CFD software to carry out three-dimensional modeling and meshing of air-cooled finned tubes.…”

Analysis of the water‐filling process for crude oil pipelines with a large drop in height

“…In recent years, many scholars have studied the flow state of pipelines by using CFD numerical simulation methods, and some scholars have proposed the method of mathematical model prediction for this problem, which provides a new idea for us to solve multiphase flow problems.…”