Erosion-corrosion is a complex phenomenon that depends on complex factors such as fluid characteristics, flow regime, flow geometry, aqueous chemistry, temperature, and type of metal. Flow modeling and particle tracking are important tools for predicting erosion-corrosion. In erosion and corrosion modeling it is important to account not only for the factors that influence erosion-corrosion but also for changes in some of these factors that occur as the erosion-corrosion process continues. For
example, the change in the geometry resulting can have a significant impact on the erosion results. Geometry changes result when corners, found in couplings and chokes, are eroded with time. This change in geometry due to erosion can drastically change the flow solution, especially the turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation rate. Recognizing this change is imperative, since the prediction of particle behavior is heavily dependent on the turbulent kinetic energy. Furthermore, more particle impingements occur in regions with higher turbulent kinetic energy. This paper shows that neglecting the change in the flow filed solution resulting from the change in geometry can cause erroneous erosion predictions. A study was performed on a choke geometry to demonstrate the importance of incorporating the change in geometry resulting from erosion. The turbulent kinetic energy contours are presented as a function of the changing choke geometry. The predicted erosion rates along the choke are also examined for the various scenarios, and these results are compared to experimental results. Results from this study show that it is necessary to update the flow geometry and flow model based on the changing geometry due to erosion or erosion-corrosion.
Keywords: erosion, erosion-corrosion, erosion modeling, experimental results