Numerical study of pressure losses for a globe valve

Abstract

The dimensionless minor loss coefficient is an indicative parameter of the inevitable flow nonisentropic process. The minimization of the dimensionless is certainly desirable especially regarding the need to expend as little energy as possible in cases such as pumping. For devices like valves it is possible to choose internal geometry to reduce the quantity and intensity of the vortices and flow separation regions. These regions are the main cause of the increase of the minor loss coefficient. Through the commercial software Ansys Workbench® and Ansys CFX® were modeled several internal geometry of globe valves. The study was conducted in two stages. Initially was studied the flow inside the traditional valve design, maintaining the constructive original features. The influence of unstructured tetrahedral mesh on the results obtained for the coefficient of pressure loss and other parameters was obtained. In the second study was analyzed a model of valve with internal geometry changed.