Abstract: In order to solve the serious damage of the metal mesh screen tube under the erosion of sand particles and improve the prediction accuracy of the erosion life of the screen. A three-dimensional simulation numerical simulation model considering the mixed structure of the outer protective cover and the inner screen of the metal mesh screen tube was established, and the hydrodynamic discrete particle flow (DPM) method was used to simulate the process of the erosion of the metal mesh by the sand particles with the fluid flow in the production process, and the influence of different flow rates on the erosion rate of the metal mesh screen was analyzed, and the life of the screen was predicted. The results showed when the inlet flow velocity reaches 1 m/s, it is the critical flow velocity of erosion failure, and when the inlet flow velocity is less than 1.0 m/s, the erosion rate predicted by numerical simulation is comparable to the experimental erosion rate. When the inlet flow velocity is greater than 1 m/s, the flow velocity changes significantly due to the consideration of the overall structure of the screen, and the erosion rate predicted by numerical simulation is larger than the experimental value. When the flow velocity is 2.5 m/s, the predicted erosion rate of numerical simulation is 2.1 times higher than that of the experimental value. The structure of the outer protective cover of the metal mesh screen is the main factor affecting the overflow flow rate of the screen. Affected by the sudden small flow area of the protective cover, the flow velocity of the first and second layers of the screen is much greater than that of the inlet of the outer protective cover, resulting in erosion damage to the "hot spot" of the metal mesh. The method is used to predict the screen life of 8 production wells in the field, and the maximum error is within 10.5% compared with the actual monitoring life, which meets the accuracy requirements of practical engineering application.