A Methodology For Rapidly Predicting And Minimising Solid Particle Erosion in Oil-Gas Equipment

Solid particle erosion in exploration and production equipment poses an inherent risk to all oil and gas facilities. As such, preemptive measures need to be employed to predict the longevity of these equipment. This paper presents a methodology to rapidly focus on the qualitative erosion hot-spots and to quantify the local erosion rate on a specific equipment both experimentally and numerically. A qualitative multilayer paint erosion modelling is first applied to the object of interest. This assumes that erosion of the paint surface is similar to the erosion rate trend of the target metal of interest. This is followed by quantitative surface profile measurements in the vicinity of the erosion hot-spots. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation of the particle flow path and subsequent impacts on the parent surface is conducted. However, prior to conducting the CFD simulations, an empirical erosion sub-model is required. This sub-model is obtained by fitting empirical curves to data obtained from physical erosion of cylinder-in-pipe samples. Once validation with experimental data is achieved, optimization can be made using computer-aided design and CFD to minimise or eliminate the erosion hot-spots. The present paper illustrates this technique via simple flow configurations commonly occurring in exploration equipment and production pipelines.