A new dimensionless number for solid particle erosion in natural gas elbows

A 2-D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was used to investigate erosion in standard elbows (r/D = 1.5) under different flow and particle conditions. Afterwards, dimensional analysis was performed to first obtain the governing dimensionless groups and then extract self-similar behavior among them when plotted against the ratio of erosion rate/gas velocity. This resulted in the development of a new dimensionless group named penetration rate (Pnr) correlated to dimensionless erosion ratio as (ER/Vg)∝(Pnr)1.0612. This correlation was plotted for different experimental data; the same trend was found.