CFD Simulations of Oil Flow and Flow Induced Forces Inside Hydraulic Valves

This paper describes a method of using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) computer simulations for hydraulic oil flow inside hydraulic valves. The main objective is to study hydraulic forces induced by oil flow on the actuators of hydraulic valves with the aim of minimizing their effects. Integration of solved pressure and velocity fields from CFD simulation solutions over related valve component surface areas was employed to obtain the desirable Flow Induced Force (FIF). Different valve metering geometry has been simulated using a commercially available ANSYS/FLOTRAN CFD software program. The hydraulic oil flow inside valves is assumed steady-state and in a turbulent mode. The complete simulation procedure is presented from parametric geometry creation with 3-D solid CAD modeler of Pro/ENGINEER through final post-processing of results. Simulation results of three hydraulic valve applications are presented. Tests have been performed to measure FIF and oil flow rates. CFD results are compared to experimental results, in some cases, with good correlation.