The effect of maximum open height on operating characteristics of polymer injected pump poppet valve

Abstract

Reciprocating polymer injected pump is the key injection equipment of tertiary oil recovery, the poppet valve in it exists the problem of large vibration noise, low efficiency and short life when transportation high viscosity medium. So the CFD technique is adopted to simulate and analyze the inner flow fields of fluid end poppet valve. According to the practical structure of the poppet valve, a simplified 2D axis-symmetry geometry model of the flow field is established. Combined with pump speed, plunger stroke and plunger diameter, given the boundary condition of the inlet valve, then the numerical simulation of flow field under six different maximum open heights is done depending on software Fluent. The relationship between open height to valve gap flow velocity, hydraulic loss and lag angle is obtained. The results indicate that, with the increase of open height, the valve gap flow velocity decreases, inlet outlet pressure differential decreases and hydraulic loss decreases. But the lag angle is continuously increasing with the increase of maximum open height, the valve has a good work performance when the open height is 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3mm, but when it reaches 3.5mm, the valve performance becomes poor. The study can offer certain reference to understand operating characteristics of poppet valve, help to reduce the hydraulic losses and raise volume efficiency of the pump. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.