Numerical Simulation of the Effect of Valve Opening and Particle Concentration on the Erosion Damage in Ball Valves of Pressure Reducing Station

Ball valve is one of valves that have many applications in industry especially in gas delivery systems. This kind of valve is categorized in the on- off flow control valve. This study aims to investigate unusual application of ball valve to control fluid flow in the oil and gas industry and its destructive effect including erosion of ball and body of valve. Simulation of industrial ball valve is done using ANSYS Fluent software and effect of erosion on it is investigated in different working conditions. In this study, working condition is performed regarding 3 different concentrations for suspended particles as well as four positions of ball in different angles. It is shown that rate of erosion for 25% open state of valve is increased to about 15000 times of complete open state of valve, and rate of erosion is increased to about 3500 times for half open state (50% open state); and rate of erosion is increased to about 220 times for 75% open state of valve.