Numerical Study on the Closing Characteristics of a Check Valve with Built-in Damping System

When check valve works in long distance or high lift liquid pipeline system, it is often subjected to water hammer. In this study, the UDF program was used to simulate the closing process of an axial flow check valve at the moment of pump shutdown, and the porous media model was applied to simulate the complete closing of the valve disc. It was found that there was local vacuum at the end of the valve disc at the moment when the valve was completely closed. The water hammer and characteristics of the force acting on the valve disc in the whole closing process were also obtained. In order to reduce the pressure surges on the valve disc and seat, a built-in critical damping was designed and added to the to the valve disc drive system. Since the spring force is directly proportional to the movement displacement of the valve disc, the elastic force and the speed of the valve disc reach the peak value when the valve is fully closed, while the damping force is directly proportional to the speed of the valve disc, therefore, the damping force increases gradually with the speed of the valve disc, which only produces the maximum damping force at the moment of fully closing, so as to reduce the slam shut, but has little effect on the closing time, thus adding damping is more effective than reducing the elastic force of spring. The current study provides a possible approach to protect the valve disc and seat of check valves in liquid supply and drainage systems.

Keywords:

Axial flow check valve , Closing motion , Water hammer , Spring stiffness , Damping