Investigation of Check Valve Aerodynamic Characteristics in Different Operating Modes

The paper presents a computational study of the NPP ventilation system check valve aerodynamics, namely, a numerical simulation of the air flowing through the open valve with the subsequent determination of the relationship between the reactive torque acting on the valve closure axles and the input air velocity.This numerical simulation of the air flowing through the check valve was performed using the ANSYS CFX program. In the computation, different operating modes of the check valve were considered when the air flow was passing through it. The valve operating modes were set depending on changes in the input air velocity. As a result of aerodynamic computation, the values of pressure and velocity components were obtained over the entire valve volume.Reactive forces were calculated in the ANSYS Mechanical program. The reactive forces acting on the valve body form a torque at the gate axles. When adjusting the check valve to the actual flow rate, it is necessary to know this torque value and compensate for it. As a result of a series of computations of reactive forces, a relationship was found between the torque value of the valve’s working element axles and the input air velocity.