Study on erosion characteristics of blind tee structure in high-pressure pipe manifolds

Elbows are widely used in high-pressure pipe manifolds but are prone to severe erosion by solid particles, threatening safety and reducing pipeline service life. The blind tee can enhance the erosion resistance. Based on liquid-solid erosion experimental results, numerical simulations were conducted to compare the erosion behavior of elbows and blind tees with different length-to-diameter ratios (1–2.5) under different outlet pressures (25–125 MPa), flow velocities (7.5–17.5 m/s), and particle mass flow rates (0.05–0.25 kg/s). The liquid-solid two-phase flow was modeled using the Euler-Lagrange approach with a modified E/CRC erosion model validated by experiments. Results show that increasing outlet pressure, velocity, and particle flow rate significantly enhances erosion, with velocity exhibiting an exponential effect and particle flow rate a linear effect. Compared to elbows, blind tees generate a buffer vortex that reduces the maximum erosion rate. The primary erosion area occurs at the tee intersection and the outlet pipe bottom. The maximum erosion rate decreases with increasing L/D, considering overall cost and space efficiency, L/D = 2 is the optimal choice. These findings provide valuable insights for the design and safe operation of high-pressure pipe manifolds.