DEVELOPMENT OF ALGORITHM FOR AUTOMATED ASSESSMENT OF THE TIGHTNESS OF CONTACT SEALING CONNECTIONS OF ISOLATION VALVES

The paper analyzes the prospects for using applied mathematical and algorithmic support for the study of the sealing ability of contact sealing connections of isolation valves. To ensure the operability of the equipment, it is necessary to determine the required level of sealing forces (contact pressures) that affect the weight and size characteristics of the product. The relevance of the study is related to the task of reducing the amount of time and material resources at the stage of design and experimental testing of pipeline fittings. The purpose of this work is to develop methods for automated assessment of the tightness of contact sealing connections to develop proposals for reducing the required level of contact pressures and weight and size characteristics of isolation valves. The paper presents an overview and analytical study of methods for determining the tightness of contact sealing connections, as well as a mathematical apparatus for modeling surface irregularities and defining sealing characteristics of isolation valve connections. An algorithm for evaluating these parameters has been developed, which modules can be further implemented as software for automating the assessment of the tightness of contact sealing connections at various stages of designing isolation valves. The developed algorithm makes it possible to filter out irrelevant sets of design parameters at the early stages of design without the need for their experimental verification, which will reduce the total amount of time and material resources in the development of isolation valves of pipelines.