CFD-DEM Simulation of Erosion in Glass Fiber-Reinforced Epoxy Resin Elbow

Erosion wear represents a significant issue in piping systems across energy and chemical industries, particularly in elbows. This study develops a prediction model for erosion wear based on tangential and normal impact energy for elbow tubes fabricated from zinc oxide-modified bidirectional E-glass fiber-reinforced epoxy resin composites (ZnO-BE-GFRP). Using a combined CFD-DEM approach, the wear characteristics under gas–solid two-phase flow conditions were systematically investigated. The model quantifies the contributions of tangential and normal impact energy to material removal through the specific energy for cutting wear (et) and the specific energy for deformation wear (en), with key parameters calibrated against experimental data from ZnO-BE-GFRP. This study shows that the increase in gas velocity significantly intensifies wear, and the wear area extends towards the middle of the elbow as the gas velocity increases. The 40–45° area of the elbow is a high-risk wear zone due to the concentration of particle kinetic energy and high-frequency collisions. The particle size distribution has a significant impact on wear: as the degree of particle dispersion increases, the wear on the elbow extrados decreases.