Eulerian sectional approach for particle erosion in compressible polydisperse flows

• Particle erosion in impinging jets is predicted using a new Eulerian framework • The framework is extended to polydisperse systems with compressible carrier flows • The Eulerian sectional approach is coupled to an OpenFOAM compressible flow solver • A simplified erosion calculator for polydisperse systems is proposed • Eulerian and Lagrangian erosion predictions match for the BATES rocket engine This study extends a recently developed Eulerian framework for characterizing particle erosion in impinging jets to handle polydisperse systems with compressible carrier flows. The Eulerian mass and momentum conservation equations are solved using a one-way coupled sectional approach. Erosion at the eroded surface is computed using both empirical and experimentally-based erosion models. The framework allows estimating the initial erosion for polydisperse flows by first evaluating the initial erosion in the corresponding monosectional flows. Then, the erosion induced by particles from different sections is linearly added using a simplified calculator with different weights for each section. This calculator generates the initial erosion immediately, eliminating the need to run numerous expensive simulations for different polydisperse flows. Analysis of bisectional systems showed that intermediate erosion profiles are obtained when using different ratios between medium and large Stokes number particles. Finally, we demonstrate that the erosion rates calculated using our Eulerian framework are in agreement with those obtained using the commonly employed Lagrangian approach in the converging section of the BATES rocket engine.