Pressure drop

Internal flow

Materials science

Port (circuit theory)

Engineering

Artificial intelligence

Economics

Geometry

Physics

Globe valve

Flow coefficient

Finance

Mathematics

Mechanics

Position (finance)

Flow (mathematics)

Butterfly valve

Computer science

Control (management)

Ball valve

Ball (mathematics)

Volumetric flow rate

Control theory (sociology)

Computer simulation

Mechanical engineering

Journal of Fluids Engineering

Process valves are responsible for regulating and controlling the rate and direction of flow in pipeline systems. The V-port ball valve is one kind of process valve with a regulating performance influenced by V-angle. In this article, a DN50 V-port ball valve is taken as the research object. This work therefore aims to investigate the effect of and relationship between the V-angle on valve performance and internal flow properties via experiments and numerical simulations. Results indicate that an increase in either V-angle or valve opening causes a large-pressure fluctuation near the valve outlet, thus leading to a long pressure-stable distance. Meanwhile, the flow coefficient increases exponentially with valve opening, and the value of the exponent remains at 2.5 for different V-angles. Furthermore, the stable position of internal energy loss along the downstream pipe is well-matched with the stable position of external pressure fluctuation. This inspires a new method for controlling the pressure stability downstream from the valve. These results may facilitate improvements in the design and optimization of the process valve, thus benefiting the development of fluid transport techniques in energy industries.

An Experimental and Numerical Study of Regulating Performance and Flow Loss in a V-Port Ball Valve