Numerical simulation on a throttle governing system with hydraulic butterfly valves in a marine environment

Abstract

Hydraulic butterfly valves have been widely applied in marine engineering because of their large switching torque, low pressure loss and suitability for large and medium diameter pipelines. Due to control problems resulting from switching angular speeds of the hydraulic butterfly valve, a throttle-governing control mode has been widely adopted, and detailed analysis has been carried out worldwide on the structural principle concerning speed-regulation and the load torque on the shaft while opening or closing a hydraulic butterfly valve. However relevant reports have yet been published on the change law, the error and the influencing factors of the rotational angular velocity of the hydraulic butterfly valve while opening and closing. In this article, research was based on some common specifications of a hydraulic butterfly valve with a symmetrical valve flap existing in a marine environment. The throttle governing system supplied by the accumulator to achieve the switching of the hydraulic control valve was adopted, and the mathematical models of the system were established in the actual conditions while the numerical simulations took place. The simulation results and analysis show that the rotational angular velocity and the error of the hydraulic butterfly valve while switching is influenced greatly by the drainage amount of the accumulator, resulting in pressure loss in the pipeline, the temperature of hydraulic medium and the load of the hydraulic butterfly valve. The simulation results and analysis provide a theoretical basis for the choice of the total capacity of the accumulator and pipeline diameters in a throttle governing system with a hydraulic butterfly valve. It also determines the type and specification of the hydraulic butterfly valve and the design of motion parameters of the transported fluid.