Modelling and analysis for a pilot relief valve using CFD method and deformation theory of thin plates

The current work is concerned with modelling and analysis for a pilot relief valve, thus successfully bringing a systematic method for designing and analyzing similar valves. The essence of the work is to solve two important problems, one for positions of the pilot valve influenced by flow force and the other is for the opening of the relief valve governed by a thin annular plate. The computational fluid dynamics(CFD) method is used to present the flow force. Using a series of experiments, the flow rate versus pressure drop shows the rationality of the CFD results. In order to obtain the opening of relief valve with higher accuracy, the large deflection theory of thin plates is adopted. An equivalent method for replacing the concentrated force is innovatively proposed so that all of the loads of the plates can be given by a unified expression, which reduces the number of the governing equations and intermediate boundary conditions. For presenting a very simple and reliable method for solving the governing equation, an unconstrained nonlinear optimization is innovatively introduced to solve the deflection of the thin annular plate. Being verified by finite-element method(FEM) of the relief valve, the equivalent method and optimization can solve deflection of thin plates rapidly and accurately. Reflected through a complete model for the pilot relief valve, the theoretical flow rate of the pilot relief valve is consistent with experimental conclusion. Once again, the comparisons bring us insight into the accuracy of the method adopted in the current work.

Computational fluid dynamic(CFD)simulation of pilot operated intermittent gas lift valve

To design an efficient intermittent gas-lift installation,reliable information is needed in the performance of all process components,from the outer boundary of the reservoir to the surface separators.The gas lift valve is the one critical component that affects the design of the whole system.In intermittent producing system,the pilot gas-lift valve is extremely used to control the point of compressed gas entry into the production tubing and acts as a pressure regulator.A novel approach using computational fluid dynamics simulation was performed in this study to develop a dynamic model for the gas passage performance of a 1-in.,Nitrogen-charged,pilot gas-lift valve.Dynamic performance curves were obtained by using Methane as an injection gas with flow rates reaching up to 4.5 MMscf/day.This study investigates the effect of internal pressure,velocity and temperature distribution within the pilot valve that cannot be predicted in the experiments and mathematical models during the flow-performance studies.A general equation of the nonconstant discharge coefficient has been developed for 1-inch pilot valve to be used for further calculation in the industry without using CFD model.The developed model significantly reduces the complexity of the data required to calculate the discharge coefficient.