Navier-Stokes flow field analysis of compressible flow in a high pressure safety relief valve

摘要

The objective of this study is to investigate the complex three-dimensional flow field of an oxygen safety pressure relieve value during an incident, with a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. Specifically, the analysis will provide a flow pattern that would lead to the explanation of the eventual erosion pattern of the hardware, so as to combine it with other findings to piece together a most likely scenario for the investigation. The CFD model is a pressure-based solver. An adaptive upwind difference scheme is employed for the spatial discretization, and a predictor, multiple corrector method is used for the velocity-pressure coupling. The computational result indicated vortices formation near the opening of the valve which matched the erosion pattern of the damaged hardware.