Determining the most restrictive area in flow path

Using SimScale Fluid Flow / CFD
1

Hello, I’d love some help on this problem, but I am making a few assumptions here in bullets:

I have a model I am trying to improve the flow coefficient Cv/Kv for a valve moving incompressible water.

  • I suspect one of the best ways to determine this would be finding the most restrictive section of the path through the valve is.

  • The flow is not linear so I would want the area perpendicular to the flow. This is easy if I were to be using a regular pipe since that would just be pi*r^2 but this area likely isn’t flat on any XYZ plane like this:

image
image719×347 13.8 KB

(the black line is the shortest distance from curved surface to curved surface)

Is there any way for SimScale to determine the most restrictive area/section in my valve given my assumptions?

If my assumptions are wrong (likely the second one) is there any other way to determine the most problematic section of my system? There’s a good chance I’m looking at this the wrong way.

THANKS!

2

Hi!

A simple approach is what is done in adjoint optimization (search for it), basically check the pressure plot over the surfaces, and reduce in size the ‘red’ zones, that is, areas with higher pressure.

I am by no means an expert on the topic, so please research this line of action. If someone else on the community has experience, please contribute, I would also like to learn!