A systematic review of material erosion prediction techniques: Incorporating model parameters variability and the lack of field-scale representation

Abstract

The precise prediction of solid particle erosion of industrial flow equipment remains a constant challenge due to the effects of particle properties, flow conditions, and approximation of field-scale geometries. This research offers a systematic literature review (SLR), following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, in which a primary collection of records was obtained from six major scholarly databases. After duplicate discard, two-stage title/abstract/keywords screening, and eligibility/quality assessment, 84 studies were included. These included records were categorized into purely numerical-based (33%), purely experimental (16%), and hybrid numerical–experimental (51%) approaches, revealing distinct variations between computational cost, mechanistic consistency, and empirical precision. We then analyzed how particle size, concentration, impact angle, and velocity have been adapted through these approaches. A common simplification to particle size and small concentrations was observed in numerical-based studies; whereas hybrid-based studies used more realistic distribution. Field-scale geometries were commonly approximated by laboratory-scale flow loops or simplified coupons or plates, with just a few studies incorporating gravity effects or real field-scale dimensional representation. In addition, fluid-medium temperature effects on erosion remain predominantly ignored, with less than 5% of included studies integrating thermal coupling in spite of its well-known effect on material surface erosion and fluid viscosity reduction. Our findings underline crucial literature gaps—especially the necessity for temperature-dependent investigation and improved field-scale dimensional validation—and put forward recommendations for future research, including the selection of two-way coupled CFD–DEM modeling validated with more field representative experimental setups.