Evaluation of steady flow torques and pressure losses in a rotary flow control valve by means of computational fluid dynamics

In this paper, a novel design of a rotary hydraulic flow control valve has been presented for high flow rate fluid power systems. High flow rates in these systems account for substantial flow forces acting on the throttling elements of the valves and cause the application of mechanically sophisticated multi-staged servo valves for flow regulation. The suggested design enables utilisation of single-stage valves in power hydraulics operating at high flow rates regimes. A spool driver and auxiliary mechanisms of the proposed valve design were discussed and selection criteria were suggested. Analytical expressions for metering characteristics as well as steady flow torques have been derived. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of steady state flow regimes was conducted to evaluate the hydraulic behaviour of the proposed valve. This study represents a special case of an independent metering concept applied to the design of power hydraulic systems with direct proportional valve control operating at flow rates above 150 litres per minute. The result gained using parametric CFD simulations predicted the induced torque and the pressure drops due to a steady flow. Magnitudes of these values prove that by minimising the number of spool's mobile metering surfaces it is possible to reduce the flow-generated forces in the new generation of hydraulic valves proposed in this study. Calculation of the flow jet angles was analytically verified by measuring the deflection of the velocity vector using flow velocity field distribution, obtained during visualisation of the results of CFD simulations. The derived calculation formulas can predict metering characteristics, values of steady flow torques and jet angles for the specified design and geometry of the suggested valve. The proposed novel structure of the flow control valve promises to attain improved controllability, reliability and efficiency of the hydraulic control units of heavy mobile machinery operating at high flow rates regimes. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.