CFD-Based Erosion and Corrosion Modeling of a Pipeline with CO₂-Containing Gas–Water Two-Phase Flow

Abstract

A natural gas transportation pipeline with a gas–water two-phase flow containing CO2 is prone to severe flow-assisted corrosion (FAC). The accumulation location of the water phase in the pipeline and the wall shear stress distribution are important factors affecting the severity of this phenomenon. In this work, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed using the realizable k-ε model and volume of fluid (VOF) model to determine the gas–water volume fraction distribution and wall shear stress in a gas–water two-phase pipeline and established a pipeline corrosion prediction model. By determining where the water phase accumulates in the pipeline, the potential corrosion area could be predicted. By alleviating the phenomena of excessive local wall shear stress and bubble cavitation, the FAC due to the formation of stress and acid gas can be controlled. The simulation results lay a certain foundation for the corrosion research of gas–liquid two-phase flow pipelines.

Keywords

• acid dissolved gas
• natural gas pipeline
• gas–water two-phase flow
• flow-assisted corrosion
• bubble cavitation
• wall shear stress