Study on Liquid-Solid Flow and Erosion Characteristics in a Check Valve for Seawater Transportation

Abstract

As a safety valve, check valve plays a key regulatory role in the seawater transportation system. When the seawater medium contains solid particles, the long-term impact of liquid-solid flows leads to erosion in check valve as well as lax sealing and leakage, which affects the safe operation of the transportation system. In this article, numerical simulations were carried out to study effects of valve opening degree and particle diameter on particle motion and erosion characteristic in a model check valve. Particle motion and erosion distributions were analyzed at different valve opening degrees and particle diameters to provide theoretical support for structure optimization of erosion protection in check valves for seawater transportation. Results show that under the same particle diameter, high-speed jet flows are generated at the downstream of the valve core. The intensity of the high-speed jet flows gradually decrease and the erosion on the main wall decreases with the increase of valve opening degree. When valve opening degrees is larger than 60%, the intensity of high-speed jet flows and erosion distributions are changed slightly. At the same valve opening degree, with the increase of particle diameter, the settlement of particles near valve core and pipe becomes more obvious and erosion increases with the erosion position moving toward the downside of valve core and pipe at the downstream.