Parametric study of fluid flow through a gate valve for five design points in ANSYS FLUENT

Objective

In this project, we have to perform a parametric study on the gate valve simulation by setting 5 design points starting from the initial condition of lift with the least value of mass flow rate. And we need to:

• Obtain the mass flow rates at the outlet for each design point.
• Show the cut section view for the design points to show that the gate disc has lifted and fluid volume has adapted accordingly.
• Show the velocity contour animations for the design points.

Gate valve parametric study

1. Geometry

• This is the geometry of the gate valve. It controls the flow of fluid through it. It has a valve that can move up and down by rotating the wheel, to regulate the fluid flow.

• We need to pull both ends of the gate valve for a length of 800 mm, to extract the required fluid volume.
• Before generating fluid volume, we have to move the gate valve in an upward direction for a length of 5 mm. After moving the gate valve we have to click the parametric "p" button to perform the parametric study of the gate valve.

• Now we are ready to generate the fluid volume. We can see the generate fluid volume in the above image.
• After generating the fluid volume we need to suppress all the geometry components for physics.

2. Meshing

• For this problem, we will generate a simple mesh with an element size of 6e-003 m.
• Total nodes: 84474.
• Total mesh elements: 417895.

3. Setup

• Steady-state analysis.
• Solver: pressure based.
• Velocity formulation: absolute.
• Solution method used: SIMPLE.
• Viscous model: k-epsilon Realizable, with scalable wall function.
• Material: liquid water
• Solution method: SIMPLE.
• Initialization method: Standard from the inlet.
• Gravity is enabled: -9.81 m/s^2
• Total number of iterations: 1000.

Boundary condition

• Pressure inlet: 10 pascals.
• Pressure outlet: 0 pascal.

Cell zone condition

• Fluid volume: Liquid water

4. Parametric study results

• In the parametric window, we set five design points with an increment of 5 mm gate valve lift. After defining the design points we have to update all the design points.

DP 0: 5 mm of Gate valve lift

Cut section view

• In the above image, we can see the cut section view of the gate valve. The gate valve has been raised upward for a length of 5 mm.

Cut section view of the mesh

Residuals

Mass flow rate

• The above image of the mass flow rate for the 5 mm lift of the gate valve. We can see that the mass flow rate becomes stable and constant after 150 iterations.

Velocity contour animation

DP 1: 10 mm of Gate valve lift

Cut section view

• In the above image, we can see the cut section view of the gate valve. The gate valve has been raised upward for a length of 10 mm.

Cut section view of the mesh

Residuals

Mass flow rate

• The above image of the mass flow rate for the 10 mm lift of the gate valve. We can see that the mass flow rate becomes stable and constant after 150 iterations.

Velocity contour animation

DP 2: 15 mm of Gate valve lift

Cut section view

• In the above image, we can see the cut section view of the gate valve. The gate valve has been raised upward for a length of 15 mm.

Cut section view of the mesh

Residuals

Mass flow rate

• The above image of the mass flow rate for the 15 mm lift of the gate valve. We can see that the mass flow rate becomes stable and constant after 150 iterations.

Velocity contour animation

DP 3: 20 mm of Gate valve lift

Cut section view

• In the above image, we can see the cut section view of the gate valve. The gate valve has been raised upward for a length of 20 mm.

Cut section view of the mesh

Residuals

Mass flow rate

• The above image of the mass flow rate for the 20 mm lift of the gate valve. We can see that the mass flow rate becomes stable and constant after 250 iterations.

Velocity contour animation

DP 4: 25 mm of Gate valve lift

Cut section view

• In the above image, we can see the cut section view of the gate valve. The gate valve has been raised upward for a length of 25 mm.

Cut section view of the mesh

Residuals

Mass flow rate

• The above image of the mass flow rate for the 25 mm lift of the gate valve. We can see that the mass flow rate becomes stable and constant after 300 iterations.

Velocity contour animation

Conclusion

• Parametric study for fluid flow through gate valve has been performed. Five design points were created.
• The mass flow rate keeps on increasing as we increase the gate valve opening. The mass flow rate increased rapidly at the start of the simulation and then became constant and stable.

Mass flow rate for different design points

The negative sign indicates that the fluid is going out of the fluid volume at the outlet in Ansys Fluent.