2008 International ANSYS Conference

Compressor Valve Simulation Using ANSYS and CFX

Sachin Pagnis, CFD Engineer Emerson Design and Engineering Center, India Zhichao Wang, Manager Of Analytical Services Emerson Climate Technology, USA

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Outline Background & Objective Simulation Procedure Results & Discussions Conclusions

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Background Background A compressor valve is used in a bi-flow fluid path The valve carries dynamic load and stresses due to the fluctuation of pump pressure The thin valve deflection (opening) is a critical factor that affects the pump performance High stress and strain may lead to thin valve fatigue and compressor failure

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Thin Plate Valve for Flow Control

The structural response of this thin plate controls the flow rate High pressure drop across the valve increase flow by forcing the valve plate to deflect more Large deflection creates high stress In reverse flow condition, the valve will stop the flow Large structural deflection application like this is one of the most challenging Fluid Structure Interaction problem
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Objective

Evaluate the deflection and stresses of the valve due to fluid flow using ANSYS and CFX fluid and structure interaction feature (FSI)

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Simulation Difficulties
Transient coupled Fluid Structure Interaction problem for transient flows are still challenging when large deflection is involved Rather large deformation due to the fluctuation of fluid load causes significant fluid mesh distortion such that solver stability is impacted This is particularly challenging as the time step size for stable computation could be impractically small An alternate approach is adopted to effectively resolve the physics of flow Induced deformation in the thin valve assembly

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Simulation Procedure
For a given reed valve thickness 1. Start with ANSYS
Apply a pressure on it and obtain deformed reed geometry Mesh the fluid volume; Set up the CFX case Note the pressure on the reed valve from CFX will be different from that used in ANSYS Calculate corresponding reed deflection

2. Take the deformed reed geometry to CFX 3. Calculate steady state flow at this initial opening 4. Transfer fluid load from CFX to ANSYS

Repeat steps 1 thru 4 for a number of pressure values Step-3 will generate a curve of fluid load as a function of reed openings Step-4 will generate a curve of reed deflection (opening) as a function of fluid load (pressure)
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Simulation Procedure
Mathematically, we have two equations from the 2 curves The solution of these equations can be easily obtained if the two curves are not parallel The cross point of these curves will be the actual solution of the reed under steady state fluid flow We expect relatively smaller changes in deflections for different thicknesses of the reed valve Flow will not be impacted significantly ANSYS-only simulation (no CFX) will suffice to obtain fluid pressure vs. reed deflection curves This make this method more efficient and effective in design optimization
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Geometry and Boundary Conditions for CFD & Structural Models

Valve

(b) (a)

Figure 1 (a) CFD mesh & BC; (b) Structural geometry & BC
Outlet

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Boundary Conditions : CFD

Materials Property
Name Settings
Density 961 kg/m3 Viscosity 0.028 kg/ms

Boundary Conditions Name

Inlet

Settings
Flow Direction = Normal to Boundary Condition Flow Regime = Subsonic Mass And Momentum = Total Pressure Relative Pressure = 1 [psi] Turbulence = Low Intensity and Eddy Viscosity Ratio Flow Regime = Subsonic Mass And Momentum = Static Pressure Relative Pressure = 0 [psi]

Outlet

INTF1 (thin valve Wall Influence On Flow = Free Slip Top surface) INTF2 (thin valve Wall Influence On Flow = Free Slip Bottom surface)
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CFD Results
Valve deflection 0.79mm
Top surface Pmean = 1.42e-3 MPa

Valve deflection 0.49mm

Valve deflection 0.32mm

Top surface = 3.34e-3MPa

Pmean

Top surface = 2.35e-3MPa

Pmean

Bottom surface Pmean = -1.93e-5MPa

Bottom surface Pmean = -1.26e-5MPa

Bottom surface Pmean = -4.61e-5MPa

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Structural Results
Deflection

Thin valve thickness = Thk#1 thin valve deflection (assumed) = 0.79mm (equilibrium position)

Thin valve thickness = Thk#2 thin valve deflection (assumed) = 0.49mm (equilibrium position)

Thin valve thickness = Thk#3 thin valve deflection (assumed) = 0.32mm (equilibrium position)

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Structural Results
Equivalent Stress

Thin valve thickness = Thk#1 thin valve deflection (assumed) = 0.79mm (equilibrium position)

Thin valve thickness = Thk#2 thin valve deflection (assumed) = 0.49mm (equilibrium position)

Thin valve thickness = Thk#3 thin valve deflection (assumed) = 0.32mm (equilibrium position)

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Simulation Results Summary

Thin valve Static deflection thickness (in) (mm/in) 0.002 0.800 / 0.031 0.003 0.475 / 0.019 0.004 0.325 / 0.013
Valve Deflection (mm) Valve Deflection Vs Reed Thickness
0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0

Stress (MPa)

Note the asymptotic behavior of the deflection response to valve plate thickness These are consistent with the stress in the plate for different thicknesses Mathematically, this method is acceptable. In reality, the accuracy of this type of predictions may require more study (full FSI in progress)

Thk#1

Thk#2 Valve Thickness

Thk#3

220 200 180 160 140 120 100

Stress Vs Valve Thickness

Van Mises Max. Principal

Thk#1
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Thk#2

Thk#3
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Valve Thickness (mm)

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Calculation of Valve Deflection

4 Differential Total Pressure (MPa) 3.5 Deflection Thk#1 thk Deflection Thk#2 thk Deflection Thk#3 thk 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 0.0 0.001 0.002 0.003 0.004 0.005 0.006

Deflection (mm)

Total Pressure (MPa)

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Implicit Approach
Reed Deflection (mm)

As next step, more investigation will be needed to use the manual procedure of getting these curves for any valve using ANSYS MFX solver Current convergence difficulties are under investigation
Predicted excessive deformation due to pressure solution from CFD appears to create unmanageable mesh distortion Successive mesh displacements cause pressure spike on the CFD solver

Reed Deflection Vs Reed Thickness

0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0

Thk#1

Thk#2 Reed Thickness

Thk#3

220

Stress Vs Reed Thickness

Stress (MPa)

200 180 160 140 120 100 Thk#1 Thk#2 Thk#3

Van Mises Max. Principal

Although, all these could be potentially resolved as apparent from multiple success stories available at ANSYS on the couple FSI applications

Reed Thickness (mm)

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Coupled FSI Applications with ANSYS MFX Solver

Courtesy: ANSYS Inc.

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Summary
Using sequential one-way coupled FSI procedure, an explicit procedure is developed to design thin valve assemblies The current procedure is under validation studies. Strain gauge testing is on going. Knowledge gain can now be used to improve performance of the coupled FSI problem with ANSYS MFX solver

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