All control valves have an inherent flow characteristic that defines the relationship between valve opening and flow rate under constant pressure conditions. Each process operations needs valves with specific valve characteristic including fast opening, linear or equal percentage.
Valve needs to be designed based on the process control requirement. Predicting the valve characteristic during the design phase is a very critical to meet end control requirement. Valve characteristic depends on the way flow passage between moving and a stationary component is managed. The design of moving components like the disc, plug, ball etc. and its relative position to stationary component decides the overall characteristic of a valve. The designer needs to know the effect of change of many valve geometrical parameters on its flow characteristics.
Understanding flow characteristic in control valve is a complex process. Fluid flow entering the control valve undergoes various flow behavior before it leaves the valve. Analytical calculations are impossible in such cases as flow undergoes separation, change in direction and wall resistance. Computational Fluid Dynamics is an accurate method to predict exact flow behavior in control valve.
Control Valve Performer app by simulationHub is built for designers. This app is built taking into consideration that valve designers does not have any knowledge about complex CFD process. The app asks only the inputs and details which designer can give easily. It does not ask any inputs related to CFD including flow conditions, meshing and solver details etc. All the CFD process is automated with customized solution settings for control valve flow simulations. The results are presented in simple and ready to use characteristic curve plot.
Control Valve Performer app by simulationHub needs only following inputs from designer:
- Create / import control valve geometry
- Select moving components
- Provide opening conditions and axis of rotation / lift
- Provide a point in the flow region
And this is all needed to get a characteristic curve of control valve using this app. The app then takes all the inputs and do number of CFD simulations to predict characteristic value at each opening. The computations are done using simulationHub’s cloud computing resources and do not use any local computer.
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