Numerical performance and safety analyses of a retainer-type ball valve for use in a high-pressure district heating pipeline

The performance and safety of a retainer-type ball valve have been evaluated for use in a high-pressure pipeline to a district heating plant. The retainer-type ball valve is a developed valve improving the defects of the leaks that may occur in the general valves such as the floating ball valve or trunnion ball valve. To verify the valve design, a numerical analysis of the design has been applied to investigate safety factors and to determine the flow coefficients for the DN300 and DN400 standard sizes. The conditions used for the numerical analysis was based on the international standards ISO 5208, IEC 60534-2-3, and a high-pressure pipeline to a district heating plant. The structural analysis results comprise deformations, equivalent stresses, and safety factors, and the flow analysis results show the flow coefficient, the pressure distribution, the velocity vectors, and the flow patterns for each rotation angle. These results confirmed the characteristics and reliability of the retainer-type ball valve and, based on these studies, we proposed a retainer-type ball valve as a solution to solve the leakage problem.