Flow-induced vibration of a steam control valve

Main steam control valves in power plants are required to operate underwide ranges of valve openings and pressure ratios. In the present paper, experimental and numerical investigations are conducted using rigid and flexible valve head supports to clarify the mechanisms of valve head vibrations that are caused by unsteady flows around the valve. The results obtained using the rigid support without valve head vibration show that the unsteady flow around the valve head causes pressure fluctuations on the valve head surface with random and impulsive wave forms. When using the flexible support, the valve head vibrates near the natural frequency of the valve head support system, and vibrations are excited around the operating conditions where the pressure fluctuation becomes greater when using the rigidly supported valve head. When the valve head vibration increases, the pressure fluctuation becomes periodic with the same frequency as the valve head vibration. The numerical results show that the response of the separated jet lags behind the valve head motion. As a result, the lateral fluid force adds negative damping on the vibration on the valve head. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.