Numerical Study of Large Diameter Butterfly Valve on Flow Characteristics
A numerical approach was used to investigate the flow characteristics around a butterfly valve with the diameter of 2108 mm by the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code FLUENT6.3. The simulation was carried out to predict flow field structure, flow resistance coefficient, hydrodynamics torque and so on, when the large diameter butterfly valve operated at various opening degrees. The three-dimensional simulation results shown that there are vortexes presented near valve back region as the opening degree smaller than 40 degree; the flow resistance coefficient reduces rapidly with the increasing of opening degree and the resistance coefficient is quite small as the angle larger than 50 degree; the hydrodynamic torque reduces with the increasing of opening degree and the hydrodynamic torque is smaller than 20% of maximum torque; the torque ratio and the pressure drop ratio are reduce with the increasing of opening degree, the pressure drop ratio reduces rapidly as the opening degree is smaller than 50 degree.