Is it possible to calculate the surface degradation of a pipeline

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the feasibility of calculating the surface degradation of a pipeline, particularly focusing on wear rates due to fluid flow, with an emphasis on the potential role of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions whether it is possible to calculate surface degradation using FEA.
  • Another participant asserts that standard FEA is not suitable for this purpose and distinguishes between corrosion and wear, suggesting that fluid-structure interaction (FSI) software may be more appropriate for predicting wear rates.
  • A participant mentions that while FLUENT can predict shear stress, they seek guidance on how to use this data to calculate wear rates and requests a formula.
  • It is noted that CFD or FEA alone may not suffice for accurate predictions, and that practical testing is often necessary to obtain reliable wear rate estimates, which can vary significantly based on conditions and materials.
  • Specific examples are provided, indicating that different fluid and material combinations can lead to vastly different wear rates.
  • A participant expresses uncertainty about their knowledge on the topic, suggesting that others may have more expertise.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the best approach to calculate wear rates, with multiple competing views on the suitability of various software and the importance of empirical testing.

Contextual Notes

The discussion highlights limitations in existing software capabilities and the dependency on specific conditions and material properties, which remain unresolved.

west_cost
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Is it possible to calculate the surface degradation of a pipeline that water is flowing through it using FEA?
 
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Normal FEA, no. Also do you acutally mean corrosion or wear? If it's acutally corrosion I don't know of any software (akin to FEA) that predicts that.

I suppose you could use some fluid structure interaction software or some dynamics based softare to predict wear rates.

This is the kind of thing that's just emprically tested, even if you do get some figures from the software, you would have no idea if they are sensible or not.
 


I meant the wear rate which I think it is due to corrosion. FLUENT can be used to predict the shear stress of the flow. But how could I used this data to calculate the wear rate? Can you suggest me any formula?
 


CFD or FEA programmes alone won't do the job, it's not a trivial problem so a formula isn't a silver bullet. At the very least you'd probably need to use FSI software to do a full simulation. However if you can estimate wear rates (from testing) it's becomes a simple maths problem, and you could model different variables in Matlab.

Like I said in reality this kind of problem is solved by practical testing. I mean it depends massively on the conditions and materials involved.

So for example: pure water/oil against against a very smooth and hardened stainless steel will give you totally different wear rates to water + some grit suspended in it flowing through a soft steel.

There will be someone one here with more knowledge of this than me.
 

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