PSI - Issue 71

Rahul Tarodiya et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 71 (2025) 241–247

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erosive behavior of the secondary elbow. For a particle size of 50 µm, the thickness loss rate increases with a connecting length change from 3D to 16D, but there is no significant change in the location of maximum erosion and the profile of thickness loss rate with a further increase in connecting length from 16D to 50D. For particle sizes of 100 µm and 200 µm, the thickness loss rate increases with the connecting length up to 50D, and the location of maximum erosion also changes. For a particle size of 400 µm, higher erosion is observed at a 3D connecting length, with no change in the thickness loss rate profile as the connecting length increases from 8D to 50D.

(a) 50 µm

(b) 100 µm

(c) 200 µm (d) 400 µm Fig. 4 Comparison of thickness loss rate profile of secondary elbow extrados with connecting pipe length for particle size of (a) 50µm, (b) 100µm, (c) 200µm and (d) 400µm

Fig. 5 compares the total mass loss rates of the primary and secondary elbows due to erosion. The results indicate that the primary elbow experiences more erosion than the secondary elbow. As particle size increases, the erosion of the secondary elbow decreases, leading to a larger difference in total mass loss between the primary and secondary elbows. Additionally, the effect of changes in connecting length on the erosion of the secondary elbow shows a dependency on the particle size. Fig. 6(a) and 6(b) illustrate the effect of velocity on the erosion of both primary and secondary elbows with different particle sizes and connecting pipe lengths. The observations indicate that increasing the velocity leads to increased erosion in both elbows, likely due to the higher kinetic energy of the impacting particles. However, the rate of erosion increase due to velocity is more pronounced in the primary elbow compared to the secondary elbow. This difference becomes more significant with larger particle sizes and longer connecting pipe lengths. This may be attributed to the greater energy loss of particles impacting the secondary elbow due to secondary flows and multiple particle-wall collisions.