Thermo-mechanical stress and fatigue damage analysis on multi-stage high pressure reducing valve

Abstract

A multi-stage high pressure reducing valve (MSHPRV) is proposed. It can achieve a multi-stage pressure reducing way. Valve failure mainly occurs under high pressure and high temperature conditions, thus it is necessary to investigate the strength of MSHPRV under those complex conditions. In this paper, the mathematical model of MSHPRV is established and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method is employed to simulate its flow fields and thermo-mechanical stress. Next, the stress of MSHPRV under different opening time and the fatigue damage of MSHPRV under different valve openings are studied. Finally, two changes are provided on geometry of MSHPRV and the geometrical factors are optimized. The results show that, the radial direction from inner wall to outer wall is the main heat transfer direction for valve body. At opening time 50s, the working condition of MSHPRV is dangerous condition. Meanwhile, the maximum value of thermal stress is 487MPa, which is located at the upper end face of valve chamber region B3. There is a lag effect of stress distribution with respect to temperature distribution. The combined stress of valve body is composed of thermal stress and mechanical stress, in which thermal stress holds the dominant position. Moreover, with the increasing of valve opening, the fatigue damage of valve body increases correspondingly. It can be concluded that MSHPRV can cope with complex conditions like high pressure and high temperature. In the optimization design of MSHPRV, it can be found that the best strength of MSHPRV is achieved with such geometrical factors as angle 15, diameter 4mm and 2 stage plates. Besides, radian design as the improved structure is recommended. This work can benefit the further research work on the regulation performance and safe operation of high pressure reducing valve.