An Assessment of the Validity of Quasi-Steady Analysis of Pressure Relief Valves

In this paper, the validity of the commonly used quasi-steady design approach to pressure relief valves (PRV) is examined by comparing detailed steady state conditions of valve behavior directly with transient conditions. To achieve this, a PRV conforming to ASME VIII standards was modelled using the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package ANSYS FLUENT to account for transient fluid-structure interaction processes. Detailed steady state CFD simulations were conducted using quasi-steady assumptions and compared to high fidelity transient moving mesh simulations to allow the piston forces to be examined. The results indicated that noticeably different magnitudes can occur between steady state and transient simulations; highlighting the possibility of significant differences occurring between quasi steady designed valves and their ultimate performance. In this paper, a single operating condition is examined, using air at 10.3 barg, for a 5231BX refrigeration valve supplied by the Henry Group to highlight the main issues. Analysis has indicated that the differences in performance are generated by temporal, short lived vortices at the piston surface which influences the bulk flow features as the disc accelerates and decelerates; altering the net disc forces when compared to steady state conditions.