Extending Expansion and Contraction geometries in SPPS 2-D and 1-D

Expansion and contraction are commonly used in flow and production systems. They are employed in pipelined and also wells for a couple of reasons including flow acceleration or deceleration. Among them, fittings used to reduce the pipe size or contractions have considerable potential to be eroded due to particle impacts and cause failure. More than two decades ago experiments have been conducted at E/CRC on chokes, which are sudden contraction and also sudden expansion geometries.

Along with the experiments, different numerical approaches are developed to predict erosion for different geometries and flow conditions. A widely available and robust tool is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). At E/CRC, SPPS 2-D has been developed which simplifies and improves complex CFD-based erosion prediction model and provides users with a robust, easy to use erosion prediction tool. SPPS 2-D adopts the same methodology of CFD-based erosion prediction and claims to offer more accurate predictions compared to SPPS 1-D. The 2-D model has many similarities with CFD and it can be customized and improved by implementing new geometries and models into the in-house codes.

Previously, SPPS 1-D and 2-D compared with CFD simulations and the results suggested that the 1-D model could be modified to get more accurate results. This addition is discussed as “New 1D Model” for the elbow in the ongoing development. SPPS 2-D has been expanded to support contraction geometries with different contraction ratios. However, these developments require experimental data to evaluate SPPS 2-D which is CFD-based and also 1-D model.