Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis on Fluid Flow in Pipe Bends

Abstract

One problem facing today’s production and processing, desalination and nuclear power industries is flow-accelerated corrosion in pipe elbows. The simulations are being performed using the AUTODESK Simulation 2013. The objective is to establish the relationship between the fluid flow patterns and corrosion behaviour within the pipe bend. The results of the simulations of the flow in form of velocity vectors for two types of pipe bend, both mitred bend and smooth bend with three different Reynolds number 37387, 49850 and 62313 respectively. From the results obtained, it is observed that the mitre bend produces more wall shear stress, turbulent intensity and turbulent kinetic energy compared to the smooth bend and thus predicted to produce more corrosion However, with realizable k-𝜀 model, more significant differences are evident when compared with RNG k-𝜀 model and standard k-𝜀 turbulence model. The maximums in both turbulent intensity, wall shear stress as well as turbulent kinetic energy now appear on the outer radius.