An effective modeling tool for studying erosion

Visual erosion examples based on that occurred in the minerals and oil and gas industries are illustrated by a paint modeling technique. The visual paint patterns were used to illustrate erosion damage “hot spots”. This provided an insight into the underlining fluid dynamics process involved with erosion damages. This insight allows design changes to be made to reduce erosion, illustrated by examples in this paper. The patterns of erosion damages on paints were found to be similar to that occurred with metal materials. This was supported by a similarity in measured erosion angular erosion distribution with cylindrical samples. Error analysis suggested that spatial variations in velocity across a material surface accounted for most of the error in the paint modeling technique.Due to its low cost and rapidity, the technique is particularly suitable for developing and optimizing the design of flow geometries to reduce erosion, without the need to change the materials used.

Research highlights
► Many practical erosion case examples presented.
► Paint modelling applications illustrated, showing underlining mechanisms, and solution success.
► New data to show and consolidate knowledge on the paint erosion behaviour, in comparison with metal data.
► Analysis equations on the paint modelling error provided, for the first time.
► Finally, this is paper summarizing the extensive experience, success story at CSIRO, Australia on this topic, serving the minerals processing industry.