A phenomenological model for erosion of material in a horizontal slurry pipeline flow

Based on the turbulent flow theory and a single particle erosion model developed by Huang et al. (2008) [9], a comprehensive phenomenological model for erosion of material in slurry pipeline flow is developed. This model captures the effects of particle shape, particle size, slurry mean velocity, pipe diameter, fluid viscosity and the properties of target material. The model shows that the erosion rate has a power-law relation with slurry mean velocity, particle size, pipe diameter, fluid viscosity and solid concentration. The erosion rate depends strongly on the slurry mean velocity and weakly on pipe diameter and fluid viscosity. The exponent of slurry mean velocity varies in a range of 2–3.575, which is consistent with most of the experiments. The model also elucidates that the effect of particle size on erosion rate depends on the particle shape, flow condition and erosion location on the periphery of a pipe. To test the model developed, a simplified version was used to compare with the experiments conducted by Karabelas. Both of them are in good agreement.