Pressure Loss Reduction in an Innovative Directional Poppet Control Valve

This article presents the results of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of an innovative directional control valve consisting of four poppet seat valves and two electromagnets enclosed inside a single body. The valve has a unique design, allowing the use of any poppet valve configuration. Both normally opened (NO) and normally closed (NC) seat valves can be applied. The combination of four universal valve seats and two electromagnets gives a wide range of flow path configurations. This significantly increases the possibility of practical applications. However, due to the significant miniaturization of the valve body and the requirement to obtain necessary connections between flow paths, multiple geometrically complex channels had to be made inside the body. Hence, the main purpose of work was to shape the geometry of the flow channels in such a way as to minimize pressure losses. During the CFD analyses velocity distribution in flow channels and pressure distribution on the walls were determined. The results were used to obtain pressure loss as a function of flow rate, which was then verified by means of laboratory experiments conducted on a test bench.