Aerodynamic Torque Acting on a Butterfly Valve. Comparison and Choice of a Torque Coefficient

Abstract

Most technological devices use butterfly valves to check the flow rate and speed, through piping. Their main advantages are their low cost, their mechanical suitability for fast operation, and their small pressure drops when they are fully open. The fluid dynamic torque about the axis of large valves has to be considered as the actuator could be overstrained. This torque is generally defined using a nondimensional coefficient KT, in which the static pressure drop created by the valve is used for normalization. When the valve is closed downstream of an elbow, the valve pressure drop is not well defined. Thus, the classic normalization method gives many ambiguities. To avoid the use of the pressure drop, we define another torque coefficient CT in which the dynamic pressure of the flow is the normalization factor instead of the pressure drop. Advantages and drawbacks of each normalization method are described in the following.