Mitigating Bend Pipe Erosion with the Incorporation of Twisted Tape Inserts

Erosion poses a significant challenge across various industries, including thermal power plants and oil refineries.In this study, we employed commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, ANSYS-FLUENT, to explore the impact of inserting a twisted tape at different axial locations upstream of the pipe's flow.Our investigation focused on the influence of average particle size and inlet velocity on erosion patterns at these various tape positions.Our findings reveal that the introduction of a twisted tape induces a swirling motion in the upstream section of the pipe.This swirling motion leads to a reduction in maximum momentum within the pipe's elbow, consequently diminishing the erosion rate in that specific region.Additionally, a noteworthy discovery is that, despite the twisted tape itself being susceptible to erosion, the erosion rate within the elbow decreases as the insertion point of the tape is positioned further upstream of the elbow.