Computational study of torque and forces due to compressible flow on a butterfly valve disk in mid-stroke position

The ability to accurately predict the aerodynamic torque and lift and drag forces on a 2-D model of a 0.18 aspect ratio biconvex circular-arc disk operating in a compressible using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was investigated. Fluent 6.0 was the CFD package utilized to perform these calculations. Grid-convergence and time-convergence/stability were analyzed first, followed by a qualitative study of the Spalart-Allmaras, k-epsilon, and k-omega turbulence models with their enhancement features and model variants. Fluent was used to predict the pressure profile on the disk surface for disk positions 30, 45, and 60 deg (where 0 deg is the fully closed position) and over a range of pressure ratios. The pressure ratios were selected to determine the capability of CFD to accurately predict the flow field and resulting torque in flows ranging from nearly incompressible to highly compressible. Fluent predictions for the pressure profiles on the disk were compared to test data so that the lift and drag forces and aerodynamic torque could be determined responsibly. Acceptable comparisons were noted.