Experimental and computational modelling of solid particle erosion in a pipe annular cavity

Pipe annular cavities are present in equipment related to the oil and gas and other process industries. The flow in a pipe initially expands into an annular cavity of a given length with a larger pipe diameter before suddenly contracting into a smaller pipe. In this work, air-suspended sands flow through an aluminium pipe annular cavity (diameter ratios, 1.25 and 0.8; cavity length, 10.25 step-heights) in which multi-layer paint erosion and parent material loss information were obtained. It was found that: