SAND EROSION OF WEAR-RESISTANT MATERIALS - EROSION IN CHOKE VALVES

Sand particles from oil and gas production may cause considerable eros ion damage in critical parts of transport and processing equipment suc h as valves and chokes. Increased longevity of such components will le ad to significant savings as offshore oil and gas production move subs ea, and it can be achieved in two ways; through selection of erosion-r esistant materials or through design optimization. A total of 28 diffe rent materials including standard steel grades, solid tungsten carbide materials, coatings and ceramics have been tested under various impac t angles and velocities of sand particles, and examined for erosion ch aracteristics. The test results have been used to determine empirical model equations and to determine the relative erosion resistance for t he materials. The results show that a longevity gain factor of up to m ore 10(2) is possible to achieve by selection of proper material. Opti mization of choke design for a needle choke has shown that additional savings with a factor of more than 10(2) is obtainable.