Simulation of Flow Characterization in Corrosion Test Rig of Thin Channel Flow Cell (TCFC)

Pipeline corrosion can cause major integrity issue in oil and gas industry. The corrosion mechanism is influenced by many factors such as operating pressure, temperature, pH and flow condition. An experimental tool known as Thin Channel Flow Cell (TCFC) is introduced recently, which can be used to determine corrosion rate. A uniform flow pattern across the corrosion coupons in the TCFC is assumed throughout every experiment. A simulation of flow characterization is developed to analyse the velocity and the uniformity of velocity profile on the corrosion coupons in TCFC when flow rates are varied. Computational Fluid Dynamics – Fluent (CFD – Fluent) by Ansys is used to identify the flow pattern across corrosion coupons inside TCFC. CFD – Fluent consists of few steps which are modelling of geometry, meshing, setting up of solutions and last but not least, the simulation results. As a result, the velocity in the TCFC during simulation and calculation vary but still within the acceptable range which is less than 20 %. Apart from that, types of flow develop at different flow rates in TCFC are concluded to be turbulent as stated in Table 4. As the flow rate increases, the wall shear stress developed across all the corrosion coupons also change.