Development of Evaluation System for Liquid Droplet Impingement Erosion (LDI)

An evaluation system for liquid droplet impingement erosion (LDI) has been developed to predict the LDI location and the wall thinning rate. The results from previous studies and knowledge are organized and the LDI evaluation system that involves the “1. Flow Evaluation Step” and “2. LDI Evaluation Step” is suggested. The flow evaluation step includes the mass flow rate evaluation, flow distribution evaluation and droplet behavior evaluation. The LDI evaluation is conducted with LDI sensitivity function. The LDI sensitivity was test-evaluated in the steam piping model. The results show that the 1^st and last elbows have higher LDI sensitivity because of the velocity condition. We also found that the droplet collision frequency is important when evaluating the LDI sensitivity.