An experimental investigation of a new method for protecting bends from erosion in gas-particle flows

This paper intends to introduce a new way of bend erosion protection: the ribbed bend erosion protection method. Experimental research has come out fixing ribs on the outer-wall of the inside bend as well as on the wall of the straight pipe extending behind the bend in order to decrease the erosion damage caused by the “bend effect”. The experiment shows that ribbed bend technology is a simple and efficient erosion protection method, which can greatly enhance bend erosion protection ability. It also shows that the rib relative height and the rib gap between two adjacent ribs are two important parameters in the ribbed bend erosion protection ability. The same result can be reached on the straight pipe extending from the bend.