Numerical study of the hydrodynamic parameters influencing internal corrosion in pipelines for different elbow flow configurations

Abstract

Oil-water two-phase flow is common in the ocean engineering, petroleum, and chemical industries, among others. In the transportation process, the elbow system-as a paramount component-usually suffers from internal corrosion. In order to investigate the corrosion-prone characteristics of elbow systems, the volume of fluid (VOF) method and the renormalization group (RNG) kmodel were used to study the oil-water flow in three different elbow configurations. The results indicate that the maximum wall shear stress and mass transfer coefficient are located at the intrados of the elbow for all flow configurations. Nevertheless, for horizontal-upward and horizontal-horizontal elbow flows, water does not come into direct contact with the intrados of the elbow, meaning it is much less susceptible to corrosion. Thus, a multiparameter model which also takes into account the water-volume fraction is necessary for characterizing the corrosion process. When this was combined with an analysis of the water wetting process, the horizontal-downward elbow flow was found to exhibit the largest corrosion risk among the three configurations examined, the horizontal-upward elbow flow was the least susceptible and the horizontal-horizontal elbow flow was in the middle.

Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of the Influence of Diameter at Inlet 2 on Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in the Mixing Elbow

“…Compared to the simple elbow [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], studies on mixing elbows [14][15][16] are rare. Between the elbow and the mixing elbow, their main difference is in their design and function.…”

A Three-Dimensional Model of Turbulent Core Annular Flow Regime

“…e considered pipe length in the computation is reduced compared to the experiments. Liu et al,in [11], validated the numerical model based on the volume of fraction (VOF) in the case of the oilwater flow through an elbow system for upward, downward, and horizontal configurations. Shi, in [12], conducted an experimental and numerical study of highviscosity oil-water flow in horizontal pipes for two diameters.…”

Coalescence of Binary Droplets in the Transformer Oil Based on Small Amounts of Polymer: Effects of Initial Droplet Diameter and Collision Parameter

“…Collision study of liquid droplets has been widely used in the nature, aerospace, industrial, biomedical, and other fields, with respect to aspects such as polluted air and global atmosphere [ 1 ], fuel-burning [ 2 ], polymer-solvent spray [ 3 ], the petroleum industry [ 4 ], and 3D printing [ 5 ]. In thermal engineering, transformer oil generally works at a temperature of 60–80 °C, and long-term contact with metals will cause the oil to oxidize [ 6 ] and generate a small amount of water and polymer, which will cause poor heat dissipation and safety problems.…”