Parametric Study of Flow Characteristics of Butterfly Valve using CFD

Butterfly valve is a flow control device, which is used to regulate the fluid flowing through a piping system. Analysis and optimization are of special importance in the design and usage of butterfly valves. A proper selection of a Butterfly valve would require the knowledge of its characteristics and robustness. Normally this information used to be obtained from experimental tests. However the tremendous improvements in the computational methodology in recent times, has enabled the analysis of Butterfly valves using available commercial software. This paper deals with CFD analysis to find the effect of Reynolds number and the various valve openings on the characteristics of a traditional butterfly valve. The pressure loss coefficient has been evaluated at various operating conditions of a Butterfly valve. Further the permanent pressure loss coefficient has also been computed and its dependence has been analysed so that the recovery of pressure after passage through valve could be quantitatively understood. Keywords—Butterfly Valve, Pressure loss Coefficient, Permanent Pressure loss Coefficient, Drag force, Disc shape.