Experimental and numerical analysis of spring stiffness on flow and valve core movement in pilot control globe valve

Valves are widely used for fluid flow control, not only for conventional fluid like water, gas and oil, but also for hydrogen under high pressure and so forth. Under these new conditions, the response time and energy consumption of valves are closely related to the whole performance of the piping system. Pilot-control globe valve (PCGV) is a novel quick response valve, which can utilize the pressure difference before and after the valve core to control the open/close states of the main valve. In this paper, the effects of spring stiffness inside PCGV on the flow and the valve core movement are carried out, respectively. To begin with, the experimental setup is introduces and the 3D numerical model is established. The simulation is carried out in software FLUENT with RNG k-ε turbulence model, User Defined Function method and dynamic mesh regeneration methods under transmit state. Then, a comparison of steady valve core displacements between experiment and simulation is carried out. After that, the effects of spring stiffness on flow characteristics, valve core movement and response times during opening and closing periods are presented. Finally, a spring chosen correction equation is proposed. This work can benefit the further design work of PCGVs or similar valves with springs, and it can be also referred by someone dealing with novel control valves design or flow control issues.