Numerical Investigation of a New Method for Reducing Bends Erosion from Particles Impacts

The present paper intends to introduce a new method for reducingbends erosion from particles impacts: the ribbed bend erosionprotection method. Ribs are evenly fixed in the range of 20 deg-80deg on the inner-wall of inside 90 deg bend and the bend (includingribs) is made of medium carbon steel. Three-dimensional numericalworks is performed and the result shows satisfactory agreement withthe experimental measurement. Numerical simulation studies thecharacteristics of axial gas flow along the bend and secondary flowat cross section.

The present paper intends to introduce a new method for reducing bends erosion from particles impacts: the ribbed bend erosion protection method. Ribs are evenly fixed in the range of 20°-80° on the inner-wall of inside 90° bend and the bend (including ribs) is made of medium carbon steel. Three-dimensional numerical work is performed and the result shows satisfactory agreement with the experimental measurement. Numerical simulation studies the characteristics of axial gas flow along the bend and secondary flow at cross section. Detailed analyses involving the impact velocity and incidence angle of particle-metal (either particle-rib or particle-duct) impact unveil the mechanism of the anti-erosion effect. As a result, predications achieve that the average erosion rate of the ribbed bends is only a third of the bare bend under test conditions and rectangle ribs possess higher anti-erosion effect than square ribs, while the wear distribution pattern remains unchanged after adding ribs onto the bend. All results confirm that the ribbed bend erosion protection method is a simple and effective method for reducing bends erosion from particles impacts.