Finite element method and bed test to torque analysis of kelly cock valve in gas drilling

•The work studies the torque of kelly cock valve used in gas drilling.•FE simulation and experimental for kelly cock valve are presented.•It provides satisfactory results and verifies the feasibility of the method.•It can be more widely used in other inner blowout preventers (IBOPS).

This work studies the torque of kelly cock valve used in gas drilling through Finite Element (FE) simulation and experimental approach. The goal of this work is to use bed test to characterize failures of rotary switch and provide the valuable reference value for operating the kelly cock valve in oil field. During the FE simulation, the Eight-Node Brick Element is suitable for meshing, and it analyzes the stress distribution under different pressure drops of rotary switch. And torque values in different pressure drops had been tested in bed test. Also, in bed test, it can verify results of FE simulation of stress distribution. Parameters of 40CrMnMo used in the process of FE simulation based on STM E8/E8M-11 experiments. The comparison of the finite element analysis with the bed test results shows the torque values trends and the stress distribution of the rotary switch agree well with one another.