The effect of surface profile on the sand erosion of aluminium*
C. Wong A , L. Graham A , A. Swallow B , C. Solnordal C and J. Wu AA CSIRO Process Science and Engineering.
B CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering.
C CSIRO Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics.
The APPEA Journal 51(2) 732-732 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ10112
Published: 2011
Abstract
Management and prediction of sand erosion on oil and gas equipment are important for the safety, reliability and maintenance of the production facility. Prediction of sand erosion is not a trivial task as it requires an understanding of the fluid flow-field, movement of abrasive particles in this flow-field and their subsequent impact on the target material surface. It is reasonable to assume that once sand erosion occurs on a surface, the rate of erosion would be constant.
This is not always the case since the surface topography may change over time. An experiment investigating the sand erosion of a hole centred in a rectangular aluminium plate was designed to explore this phenomenon. The sample was subject to erosion by two 50 kg batches of sand; surface profiles of the hole were measured after each batch.
The results suggest that a pre-eroded surface has an increased change of erosion depth compared with a new surface. As erosion progresses, the geometry of the sample alters and, depending on location, the change of erosion depth, relative to the previously eroded profile, on the sample surface varied from −30 to 50%; slight material build-up occurred on the inner face of the hole due to extrusion processes during erosion.
Chong Yau Wong obtained his mechanical engineering degree (Hons) (2000) and his PhD (mechanical engineering—fluid mechanics) (2004) from Adelaide University. Since then, he has worked as a postdoctoral fellow specialising in laser diagnostics (particle image velocimetry and laser Doppler velocimetry) for two-phase flows at Adelaide University until 2006; he then investigated the structure of turbulent boundary layer flows with PIV/Stereoscopic-PIV systems at Monash University until early 2008. He is now with CSIRO as a research scientist and works on industry projects such as multiphase separation technologies for the oil and gas industry and sand erosion research. |
Lachlan Graham is a mechanical engineer at CSIRO Process Science and Engineering. His research interests include liquid/solid fluid dynamics with emphasis on slurry transport of complex suspensions and erosion under liquid/gas/solid flow conditions. |
Anthony Swallow is a senior technical assistant at CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering. He specialises in the design and fabrication of electronic equipment for research and development work. He is also the custodial technician in charge of the coordinate measurement machine at CSIRO. |
Chris Solnordal completed his degree in mechanical engineering (Hons) in 1986 at Melbourne University, after which he joined CSIRO. He completed his PhD in chemical engineering Melbourne University then re-joined CSIRO 1992. He has been performing computational modelling for most of that time. He works primarily with industry clients to solve a wide variety of industrial problems in the minerals and process industries. His research interests include wear reduction in the oil, gas and minerals industries, flash smelting reaction modelling, particle flows and agglomeration, heat and mass transfer, and smelting processes. |
Jie Wu has worked in the minerals industry R&D for more than 17years covering research, consultancy and full-scale implementation of technology improvement. He joined CSIRO in 1995 after completing his PhD (mechanical engineering) at Monash University. His areas of specialisation include: slurry mixing/agitation, slurry pumping/transport and slurry flow erosion. Jie’s role is leading industrial-funded research projects at CSIRO, including: slurry mixing and agitation projects, AMIRA high solids pumping project, AMIRA erosion project. Jie is also involved in other major industrial/CSIRO projects. Jie is a co-inventor of two patented technologies. |
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