The CFD Analysis of Erosion in the Four-Way Pipe of the Heavy Oil Thermal Production Wellhead

Abstract In this work, the erosion in the four-way pipe of the heavy oil thermal production was studied by experiment and CFD simulations. The metallographic analysis and the micro erosion morphology of the damaged four-way pipe were done and analyzed. The erosion experiment of four-way pipe material ZG(J)35CrMo was carried out by the multiphase flow erosion tester, and the erosion prediction model was established and modified, which was coupled with the Euler-Largrangian gas-solid two phase flow model and used in the CFD simulations. First, the simulation results were compared with the actual invalidation case, through which the validity of the model is proved. Then, the effects of whether the pit defect located in the erodible site or not, fluid velocity, particle diameter and mass flow rate on the erosion rate were investigated using the CFD model. The erosion rate would increase with the fluid velocity, mass flow rate. And the results show that if the pit defect located in the erodible site coincidentally, the erosion rate will increase sharply, maybe several times, which may increase the failure risk of the four-way pipe increase.