Experimental and numerical study of erosive wear of t-pipes in multiphase flow

Erosive wear is inexorable in chemical and hydrocarbon transportation systems. In this study, the worn surface morphologies and erosive wear mechanisms were discussed to analyze the primary mechanism of erosion in Tee (T) pipe configurations for two-phase (liquid-sand) and three-phase (gas–liquid-sand) flow conditions. The surface roughness analysis demonstrates that the erosion in three-phase plug flow was higher in comparison with two-phase flow and micro pitting, cutting, and crater development are the primary wear mechanisms. Results manifest that the changing flow pattern from two-phase to three-phase flow enhances the turbulence and wall shear inside the pipe and particles tend to impact the junction outer and inner wall multiple times, which leads to maximum erosive wear. In three three-phase plug flows, the particles impact the junction with higher velocity due to the addition of the gas phase, due to the swirl motion and particle rebound significant erosion occurs at the junction. The erosive wear caused by abrasive particles in three-phase flow was 3.74 times more severe than the erosion in two-phase flow, demonstrating that the addition of carrier fluid has an aggravated effect on material degradation.