Characteristics of cavitation evolution through a butterfly valve under transient regulation

As the key control equipment for the transmission of the fluid medium, butterfly valves are widely used in transmission systems of media in the energy, chemical industry, metallurgy, aerospace engineering, and other fields, playing an important role in the stability and reliability of system operation. When the flow cross-section suddenly changes, the pressure rapidly decreases at the downstream, leading to cavitation in butterfly valves. Cavitation causes serious erosion and damage in the valve core and pipeline surface, resulting in leakage and noise problems in butterfly valves, which seriously affects the regulation performance and lifetime of butterfly valves. In this study, numerical analyses are conducted to investigate cavitation evolution at the transient regulation of a butterfly plate through a butterfly valve model. Moreover, effects of the valve opening degree and rotating speed on the cavitation volume and distribution, rate of cavitation volume change, growth-collapse rate of cavitation, and correlation between cavitation and vortex in the opening and closing processes of butterfly valves are investigated. Due to the influence of transient regulation and flow hysteresis, the characteristic parameters and evolution of cavitation exhibit different behaviors in the opening and closing processes of butterfly valves.

蝶阀作为流体介质传输的关键控制设备，广泛应用于能源、化工、冶金、航空航天工程等领域的介质传输系统中，对系统运行的稳定性和可靠性起着重要作用。当流道截面突然变化时，下游压力迅速降低，导致蝶阀内发生空化现象。空化会对阀芯和管道表面造成严重的侵蚀和损坏，引发蝶阀泄漏和噪声问题，严重影响蝶阀的调节性能和使用寿命。在本研究中，通过蝶阀模型对蝶板瞬态调节时的空化演变进行了数值分析。此外，还研究了阀门开度和转速对蝶阀开闭过程中空化体积和分布、空化体积变化率、空化的生长 - 溃灭速率以及空化与漩涡之间相关性的影响。由于瞬态调节和流动滞后的影响，空化的特征参数和演变在蝶阀的开闭过程中呈现出不同的行为。