The fully welded ball valve is widely used in long-distance natural gas pipelines. As an essential part of the natural gas pipeline, the ball valve plays a vital role. During the operation of the natural gas pipeline, leakage or even failure of the ball valve may occur since the sand carried in the pipeline can erode the spherical sealing surface of the ball valve, posing serious safety risks. Many studies currently focus on the erosion and wear of the oil and gas pipeline elbow, while the majority of theories concentrate on the erosion of liquid-solid phase. By contrast, little research is available involving the curved surface of the gas-solid two-phase erosion ball valve core, leading to insufficient information regarding its mechanism and characteristics. Therefore, it is essential to investigate the erosion mechanism and evaluation issues involving the curved core surface of the ball valve in the natural gas pipeline. This paper examined the erosion characteristics of the curved core surface of the ball valve when subjected to the two-phase flow of sand-carrying high-pressure gas. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method for joint analysis was used to establish the erosion simulation model. Furthermore, the critical factors, such as the velocity of sand-carrying gas, particle diameter, impact angles affecting the flow field and erosion distribution of the gas-solid two-phase flow, and the erosion rate of the ball valve sample were analyzed. The results indicated that the erosion mechanism of the valve core sample involved micro-cutting when a smaller impact angle of the valve core was present in the gas-solid two-phase basin. However, a more significant impact angle represented the impact deformation. Furthermore, a “retention area” was apparent in the center of the valve core sample, and several collisions might occur between the particles within the valve core sample and the valve core sample itself. Increasing the angle gradually changed the shape of the cloud image in the erosion area from elliptical to circular. The maximum erosion position was located in the center of the valve core sample, with a “U” shaped erosion profile. Moreover, the erosion rate increased in conjunction with an increase in particle velocity and diameter, initially expanding, followed by a decline when the angle of the valve core sample became larger. This research provided theoretical guidance regarding the mechanism involved in the erosion of the ball valve core by the two-phase flow of high-pressure sand-carrying gas subjected to the changes in a variety of crucial parameters. This paper also presented a field application value for the design and maintenance of the ball valve in the natural gas pipeline


"CFD Simulation for Ball Valve Erosion of Natural Gas Pipelines Under Gas-Sand Two-Phase Flow

Division / Sponsors: 
Pressure Vessels & Piping (PVP)


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/PVP/PVP2020/volume/83815

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