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Pressure Reducing Valve - Simulate pressure control valve maintaining reduced pressure in portion of system

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Pressure Control Valves

Description

The Pressure Reducing Valve block represents a hydraulic pressure-reducing valve as a data-sheet-based model. Pressure-reducing valves are used to maintain reduced pressure in a portion of a system. The following figure shows the typical dependency between the valve passage area A and the pressure p_B downstream from the valve.

The pressure-reducing valve is a normally open valve and it remains fully open while outlet pressure is lower than the valve preset pressure. When the preset pressure is reached, the value control member (spool, ball, poppet, etc.) is forced off its stop and starts closing the orifice, thus trying to maintain outlet pressure at preset level. Any further increase in the outlet pressure causes the control member to close the orifice even more until the point when the orifice if fully closed. The pressure increase that is necessary to close the valve is referred to as regulation range, and is generally provided in the catalogs, along with the valve maximum area. The valve maximum area and regulation range are the key parameters of the block.

In addition to the maximum area, the leakage area is also required to characterize the valve. The main purpose of the parameter is not to account for possible leakage, even though this is also important, but to maintain numerical integrity of the circuit by preventing a portion of the system from getting isolated after the valve is completely closed. An isolated or "hanging" part of the system could affect computational efficiency and even cause failure of computation. Theoretically, the parameter can be set to zero, but it is not recommended.

The block is built as a structural model based on the Pressure Compensator block, as shown in the following schematic.

The block positive direction is from port A to port B. This means that the flow rate is positive if it flows from A to B, and the pressure differential is determined as .

Dialog Box and Parameters

Maximum passage area: Valve passage maximum cross-sectional area. The default value is 1e-4 m^2.
Valve pressure setting: Preset pressure level, at which the orifice of the valve starts to close. The default value is 5e6 Pa.
Valve regulation range: Pressure increase over the preset level needed to fully close the valve. Must be less than 0.2 of the Valve pressure setting parameter value. The default value is 5e5 Pa.
Flow discharge coefficient: Semi-empirical parameter for valve capacity characterization. Its value depends on the geometrical properties of the orifice, and usually is provided in textbooks or manufacturer data sheets. The default value is 0.7.
Critical Reynolds number: The maximum Reynolds number for laminar flow. The transition from laminar to turbulent regime is supposed to take place when the Reynolds number reaches this value. The value of the parameter depends on orifice geometrical profile, and the recommendations on the parameter value can be found in hydraulic textbooks. The default value is 12.
Leakage area: The total area of possible leaks in the completely closed valve. The main purpose of the parameter is to maintain numerical integrity of the circuit by preventing a portion of the system from getting isolated after the valve is completely closed. An isolated or "hanging" part of the system could affect computational efficiency and even cause failure of computation. Extreme caution should be exercised if the parameter is set to 0. The default value is 1e-12m^2.

Global Parameters

Fluid density: The parameter is determined by the type of working fluid selected for the system under design. Use the Hydraulic Fluid block or the Custom Hydraulic Fluid block to specify the fluid properties.
Fluid kinematic viscosity: The parameter is determined by the type of working fluid selected for the system under design. Use the Hydraulic Fluid block or the Custom Hydraulic Fluid block to specify the fluid properties.

Ports

The block has the following ports:

A: Hydraulic conserving port associated with the valve inlet.
B: Hydraulic conserving port associated with the valve outlet.

Examples

The Power Unit with Pressure Reducing Valve demo (sh_power_unit_pressure_red_valve) illustrates the use of the Pressure Reducing Valve block in hydraulic systems. The pressure reducing valve is set to 20e5 Pa and maintains this pressure downstream, as long as the upstream pressure is higher than this setting.