CFD investigation of flow forces on a safety valve

Abstract

In this article, authors investigated a DN50/80 size safety valve with computer fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to determine the lift forces and mass flows acting on the valve disc at 3.5 to 5.5 bar_g inlet pressures and to observe the evolution of turbulent streamlines in the outlet side of the valve, with static disc position. The simulation results were compared with measured data.

Authors studied the inner flow field of the valve with fixed 5 mm disc elevation. Lift force acting the disc and overall stream pattern were investigated with the gas vale. To eliminate backflow, authors applied a virtual streamtube on the outlet nozzle with various lengths. Differences between data of the valve measured and simulated results were investigated besides changing the length (50, 150, 250, 350 and 400 mm) of the applied tube.