Transient Analysis of a Spring-Loaded Pressure Safety Valve Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Abstract

A spring-loaded pressure safety valve (PSV) is a key device used to protect pressure vessels and systems. This paper developed a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model in combination with a dynamics equation to study the fluid characteristics and dynamic behavior of a spring-loaded PSV. The CFD model, which includes unsteady analysis and a moving mesh technique, was developed to predict the flow field through the valve and calculate the flow force acting on the disk versus time. To overcome the limitation that the moving mesh technique in the commercial software program ANSYS CFX (Version 11.0, ANSYS, Inc., USA) cannot handle complex configurations in most applications, some novel techniques of mesh generation and modeling were used to ensure that the valve disk can move upward and downward successfully without negative mesh error. Subsequently, several constant inlet pressure loads were applied to the developed model. Response parameters, including the displacement of the disk, mass flow through the valve, and fluid force applied on the disk, were obtained and compared with the study of the behavior of the PSV under different overpressure conditions. In addition, the modeling approach could be useful for valve designers attempting to optimize spring-loaded PSVs.