The erosion of horizontal sand slurry pipelines resulting from inter-particle collision

Erosion in slurry pipeline systems has received a lot of attention due to the economic impact in the cost of replacing portions of the pipelines. Most attention has been merited from the oil and gas industry. However, remediation of reservoirs behind dams built along major river systems is also a major reason this investigation is so important and provides the background for some of the parameters of this paper. Given that straight pipes are the predominant part of most systems, our attention is restricted to long straight pipes that are far enough away from elbows, welds, and tee fittings that would alter the flow. A model predicting pipeline erosion from smooth river sands suspended in aqueous slurries due to inter-particle collisions which go on to impact the wall of the pipe on straight pipelines is presented. The model is based on physical laws governing the flow of the slurry, how these velocity gradients affect the number of particles impacting the pipe wall, and the amount of wall particle removed from such impacts based on their kinetic energy. The model considers particles with diameters ranging from 50 to 350 µm, velocities of 3.5-6 m/s, and sand slurry concentrations of 10-40% by volume.