Cavitating flow in a 3d globe valve

Abstract

The efficiency of control valves operating with liquids is highly conditioned by the occurrence of cavitation when they undergo large pressure drops. For severe service control valves, the subsequent modification of their performance can be crucial for the safety of an installation. In this work, the solver interPhaseChange-Foam, implemented in OF v2.3, is used to characterize the flow in a globe valve, with the objective to evaluate its capability in solving cavitating flows in complex 3D geometries. An Homogeneous Equilibrium approach is adopted, and phase change is modeled using the Schnerr and Sauer cavitation model. Confrontation with experimental data is carried out in order to validate the numerical results. It is found that the solver predicts correctly the location of vapor cavities, but tends to underestimate their extension. The flow rate is correctly calculated, but in strong cavitating regimes, it is affected by the underprediction of vapor cavities. The force acting on the stem is found to be more sensitive to the computation parameters.