Fluid Dynamics Investigation on the Body Structure Inside a Sleeve Regulating Valve

The sleeve regulating valve is a typical flow regulating component, which is indispensable in various industrial applications. This work investigates the effects of the body structure on the overall performance and the flow characteristic of a sleeve regulating valve. The anterior cavity h, the diameter of the center cavity Dc, and the eccentricity of the center cavity e are studied in a parametric way. When the relative increment of h, Dc, and e all take the value of 0.15, the rated flow coefficient Kve of the optimized valve is promoted by 33.99% relative to the Kve of the original model. The optimized model presents less wear between the valve core and the sleeve relative to the original model. It results from the fact that the non-centrosymmetric pressure distribution is reduced on the valve core. Besides, the optimized model has smaller lateral fluid force imposed on the valve core FL than the original model when the relative travel L/Lmax > 0.625, and they have close FL in the other range. Also, the optimized model has larger axial fluid force imposed on the valve core FA than the original model when L/Lmax > 0.875, and they have close FA in the other range.