PVP-Vol.

491-1, Computational Technologies for Fluid/Thermal/

Structural/Chemical Systems With Industrial Applications -- 2 0 0 4
Volume 1
July 25-29, 2004, San Diego, California USA
PVP2004-3107

CFD SIMULATION OF A HYDRAULIC SERVO VALVE

WITH TURBULENT FLOW AND CAVITATION

Q. Chen B.Stoffel

Chair of Turbomachinery and Fluid Power
Darmstadt University of Technology
Magdalenenstr.4, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany
Tel: (00)49-(0)6151-162753
Fax: (00)49-(0)6151-162453
e-maih chen @tfa.maschinenbau.tu-darmstadt.de
Chair of Turbomachinery and Fluid Power
Darmstadt University of Technology
Magdalenenstr.4, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany
Tel: (00)49-(0)6151-162153
Fax: (00)49-(0)6151-162453
e-mail: stoffel@tfa.maschinenbau.tu-darmstadt.de

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION

In this paper the internal flow in a hydraulic servo valve
was investigated. The objectives of this research work were to
investigate the turbulent flow and the cavitation phenomenon in
the valve by using numerical simulation method in the form of
CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics). The geometry of this
valve is described by a 3D model and hybrid mesh elements ---
tetrahedron and hexahedron---are applied to generate the
necessary computational meshes for the further calculation.
Using the CFD commercial code FLUENT, the internal flow
was studied for the turbulent flow situation. In addition,
cavitation phenomenon was also investigated with the
multiphase model and standard k - c turbulence model.
Simulation results show that the flow in this valve is
characteristically turbulent and the cavitation emerges actually
in the small gap region between the spool and the valve base.
Keywords: hydraulic servo valve, CFD, turbulent flow,
multiphase, cavitation
In recent years, flow simulation in the form of CFD
became one of the simulation technologies which have been
used in the fluid power technology field. CFD can be used to
supply the useful information for dimensioning, design and
testing. Using numerical flow simulation, the internal flow in
any component can be studied at lower cost and effort in
contrast to the experimental method. Therefore more and more
attention has been paid to CFD in the fluid power technology.
In [1], the geometry of the piston of a directional valve has
been optimized and the valve has been investigated in terms of
cavitation. In [2], a 2/2 switching valve was studied using the
flow development with increasing slide position from nearly
closed to the full stroke at different temperatures. Buerk [3]
investigated by numerical simulations the pressure distribution,
pressure forces and Mach number in pneumatic seat valves and
also compared them with results from experimental
measurements. Kipping [4] carried out the experimental
analysis and numerical calculations of the internal flow in
hydraulic slide valves. Three different valve models were

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 served for the measurements where oil, water and air were gi component of gravitational vector [m/s2]
chosen as the flowing medium respectively. In addition, the
in the ith direction
influence of the frequency at the inlet and at the outlet and the
k turbulence kinetic energy [m2/s2]
influence of the bevel angle were also analyzed. Dietze [5]
studied the internal flow in hydraulic seat valves by
m mass transfer due to cavitation [kg/s]
measurements and the numerical calculations. Different 2D
n the number of multi-phases [---]
and 3D valve models with the different cone angles were built
up to study the flow and the flow effects on the valve Prt turbulent Prandtl number [---]
characteristics. The results of steady and unsteady simulation
Sk source tem for k [ m-is-2 ]
of the flow in the valves were analyzed and also compared with
the test results. Se source tem for ,~ [ m - 1s-3 ]
Cavitation is a phase change phenomenon which occurs in T temperature [°C]
fluid systems under certain conditions. If the dynamic alteration u velocity [m/s]
of the static absolute pressure reaches or drops below the vapor Vdr,p drift velocity for the phase p [m/s]
pressure of the liquid, which is dependent on the fluid
temperature, vapor bubbles are formed inside the fluid and can vm mass-averaged velocity [m/s]
collapse as they are convected into the regions which have Y,. contribution of the fluctuating [ m - i s -2 ]
higher pressure [6]. Normally, cavitation is a harmful
phenomenon in hydraulic components and systems. It not only dilatation to the overall dissipation rate
disturbs the flow continuity and changes the physical ak volume fraction of phase k [---]
performance, but also, in many cases, it results in undesirable
effects such as intensive noise, vibration and erosion of the fl thermal expansion coefficient [---]
solid surfaces subjected to it. Therefore, the investigation about e" turbulence kinetic energy [m2/sa]
cavitation is of practical significance, and more research work dissipation rate
about the cavitation phenomenon is carried out, e.g., on /'/t turbulent viscosity [kg/m-s]
hydrofoils, in turbomachinery and in valves, etc.
tim viscosity of the mixture [kg/m-s]
The cavitating flow issued from the gap of a poppet valve /9 density [kg/m a]
has been studied numerically in [7] using RNG k-e turbulence
Pm mixture density [kg/ma]
model, and the results of the numerical simulation were
compared with flow visualization experimental methods. Leino cr k turbulent Prandtl number for k [---]
et al. [8] have investigated the pressure, velocity and cavitation
sensibility in a water hydraulic poppet valve using CFD cr c turbulent Prandtl number for ,~ [---]
modeling. The influences of different types of grids and Pw density of water [kg/ma]
different turbulence models to the convergence of the solution
have been compared. Experimental tests have also been carried rlw viscosity of water [kg/m-s]
out with a half-cut poppet valve where the flow can be
p~ density of vapor [kg/m3]
observed.
fir viscosity of vapor [kg/m-s]
Referring to the above mentioned publications, CFD has
become a common simulation method which can be used in
research and development of the various components. MATHEMATICAL MODELS

When the turbulent flow in the servo valve is investigated

NOMENCLATURE
using the standard k- ,~ viscous model, the mean velocity of the
fluid at the inlet is 8.488m/s.
Cle constant [---]
The transport equations for the turbulence kinetic energy k
C2, constant [---] and it's dissipation rate ,~ are described as:
C3~ constant [---]
F body force [N/m2] ~t (pk)+~x ( p k u , ) = 0_~j [(/~ + / )crk
6 ~0k ] + G ,
Gb generation of turbulence kinetic [ m-I s-3 ]
+Gb-P~-Yu +Sx (1)
energy due to buoyancy
Gk generation of turbulence kinetic [ m-is-3 ]
energy due to the mean velocity gradients and

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 .~t-(PC) + .~-(p~u~) = .~-[(,Lt + 'tt' ) OC] + nV,.Vm) : - ~ ) - . ] - V . L U m ( ~ T V"m "t'-VYm
" z )]']"
• ~'c ~ j

E ~,2
C,..~(G, +C3~G~,)-C:.pT+ S ~ (2) Pmg + F + V. ( ~ ctkp k Vdr,k Vdr,k ) (lO)
k=l

In the above equations, G K and G b are expressed as:

where F is a body force, and ~ m is the viscosity of the
mixture:
, , att i
(3)
G k = -pu i uj c~ci t/
/2m = ~ ak,u, (11)
k=l
,u, OT
Gb = J~gi Pr, OXi (4)
v d r , p is the drift velocity for secondary phase p:

_L(O
and fl = P'OT" p (5) V dr ,p = V p - V m (12)

For the cavitation calculation, the mixture model is applied.

It is assumed that the phases move at the same velocity, so it is From the continuity equation for secondary phase p ,
a homogeneous multiphase model. The mixture model is a
the volume fraction equation for secondary phase can be
single-fluid model, which treats the density of this fluid
depicted as:
changing from the liquid state to the vapor state. The mixture
model solves the continuity equation for the mixture, the
momentum equation for the mixture, the energy equation for
the mixture, and the volume fraction equation for the secondary p) (13)
phases [9].

The continuity equation for the mixture is:

To get converged and physically plausible results for
cavitating flows, the original equation for the turbulent
8 viscosity was modified by a factor which is dependent on the
~t(Pm)+ V'(Pm ~m) = ~ (6)
mixture density. The turbulent viscosity, which is described in
Eq. (14), referring to [10], is defined by an UDF(User Defined
Function) to calculate the cavitation in this servo valve.
where Vm is the mass-averaged velocity:
!y-,.-,11 n

_
]2 m ~
P.
(7) ~, = cu" k2 [0.5542+ 997.6458(,o- 0.5542)m ] (14)
c 997.6458
and Pm is the mixture density.
n
G E O M E T R Y AND MESH
Pm = Z ak " Pk (8)
k=l

In Eq. (8), a , is the volume fraction of phase k. In this study, the geometry of the servo valve is described
as a 3D model. For the generation of the necessary mesh,
n hybrid 3D meshes were adopted to preprocessing of the
ak= 1 (9) problem, so to say, the tetrahedral and hexahedral meshes are
k=l the chosen mesh types. The whole computational mesh is cited
directly from [11]. Figure 1 shows the geometry and the meshes
The momentum equation for the mixture can be expressed for this valve. The generalized meshes have 426525 cells.
as:

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 In Fig. 1, a is the inflow geometry, b is the outflow
geometry, c is the mesh for the whole geometry which connects
the inflow and outflow parts together and also joints with a
short pipe, d represents a combined mesh which puts the x-y
and x-z cross sectional plane meshes in the same figure. In d.,
the line, which is named plane 1, expresses a plane vertical to x
axis.

BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

a. Inflow geometry
The velocity inlet and the pressure outlet are chosen as the
boundary conditions through the whole investigation for this
hydraulic servo valve. For turbulent flow, the flow velocity at
b. Outflow geometry the inlet is constant. But in the part of cavitation calculation, the
flow velocity increases firstly from 0 to 8.488m/s linearly, then
it is kept unchanged until the converged solution is reached.
The pressure at the outlet is always 2e5 Pa.

FLUID

Water is chosen as the fluid for the study of the turbulent

flow in the servo valve. Relevant properties of this fluid are:
Pw = 1000 kg/m ~
r/w = 0.001 kg/m-s
Besides water, water vapor is also another fluid in the
context with the study of the cavitating flows. It's relevant
properties are:
p~ = 2.558e-2 kg/m n

r/v =1.26e-6 kg/m-s

SIMULATION RESULTS

c. Mesh for the whole geometry 1. Turbulent flow

In the turbulent flow situation, the flow velocity at the inlet

corresponds to the flow rate of 10 l/rnin. Figure 2-4 presents
some simulation results on turbulent flow in this valve.

I//
I// t Olzmel

NN
7 ~

5.87~

d. x-y and x-z cross sectional meshes

Figure 1: Geometry and meshes Figure 2: Contours of static pressure

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 regions. It can be seen obviously that in each region there
exists one pair of vortices - one is clockwise and the other is
1.12e~[2 counter clockwise.
1J~e~12
• 9.7'~'0t
g.~m.01
gOle¢~ll t lte.~
8.71~61
83¢e~1
.~:, 1 i~.o2
7J~s~l
7.~01
6,S3e.6~ e.lTe~o~ i i ~ i,- I l

6~ ;,.41"{i
~;i'...~..
,,3 • ,..,
...... 5.89e~
s~se,~l "~: . ' - : L - . . - -
4.4211~1.,c ,: ~.;v .¢ .'~(:..
3.31e~

1 .~.~.~01
1.11e.~.01
7.~.00
31~110
r ~se+oo
3.72e~
3.61e-o2
x •
.~
--I05.51
47.~7

~ r 1~,2oo4 ]
[ Com~ursof Veocly M~nl~de(n~s) FeD04,LZ~04I
FLUENT6.1 (3d,~ , =.ke)

Figure 5: Vector distribution of the velocity on x-y plane

Figure 3: Contours of velocity magnitude
Figure 5 shows the vector distribution of velocity on x-y
Figure 2 and Fig. 3 show that both the static pressure and plane. It can be seen apparently that the velocity in the gap
the velocity magnitude in the gap between the valve base and space reaches a relatively high value of 105.51 m/s.
the spool vary significantly. The static pressure reduces quickly
to 2.1e6 Pa, and it reduces continually after water flows 2. Cavitation
through the gap. There is a small region, which is very close to
the gap, where the pressure value is negative. The flow velocity In addition to turbulent flow, the cavitation phenomenon in
increases from 8.488m/s to 14.51m/s upstream of the gap when this servo valve was also investigated. In the CFD solver
it's close to the gap, and it reaches a very high value of FLUENT, there are many implemented multiphase models
117.29m/s in the central zone of the gap. According to the which are offered to solve the different problems. So it is
analyses of the static pressure and the velocity magnitude, it theoretically possible to study cavitation using the appropriate
can be concluded that cavitation should emerge plausibly in model and parameters. In this paper, the mixture multiphase
this region. model and the standard k - 8 turbulent viscous model are
chosen to study the unsteady cavitation. The vaporization
pressure of water is 3540Pa.
i 1.1~..G2
As in the study of turbulent flow, the contours of static
pressure, velocity magnitude and the velocity vector
9~
9,~'e.~1 distribution are chosen as parts of the simulation results.
9~
e~ ~.~ ~:~;.
7~ ~,~" :~ ~
6~
s6 ~~
* - N
~-,~ ~ a.lsn.~Ol
;ii~ii~i ~,~..~

-, ':'.~ ~ .., :-.~... ~ ,.. 6~o~.m

2 2.~..i;t

32~.<1o
~.Sle.O.2

Ve~:Ity v,~:~ors C c ~ a By vniocsy~ (.w) Feno4,2oc4

FLUIBWI6.1 (~1.~ t ~ g ~ , ll~(e)

Figure 4: Vector distribution of the velocity

.... ~ ...... L.',.,%,,~
In Fig. 4, the vector distribution of the velocity in plane 1
(see Fig. 1 (d))---one y-z cross sectional plane of the outflow
geometry is shown where there are four symmetric flow Figure 6: Contours of velocity magnitude(cavitation)

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 Figure 6 shows the contours of the velocity magnitude on 2
planes which correspond to the mesh of Fig. 1 (d) . The flow
velocity increases when water flows through the gap between
the valve base and the spool. It has the highest value of
92.5m/s in the center of the gap.
When the cavitation phenomenon is investigated, the
volume fraction of vapor is also considered specially as one of
the most important parameters that are used to evaluate if the
cavitation occurs and to which extent it influences the internal
flow of this servo valve.
i?) 2,10o-,01
S.4Te-O~Z
2.6Be.g4
¢.~nlour=of volu~
Figure 7: Contours of vapor volume fraction
In Fig. 7, vapor volume fraction is well represented. An
obvious cavitation phenomenon occurs on the vertical face
which is close to the gap and the volume fraction of vapor
reaches 84.5%.
By referring to Fig.2 in turbulent flow situation where no
cavitation is taken into account, it can be concluded that
cavitation arises just in the region where the value of the static
pressure is a little smaller than the vaporization pressure.
. t e , . . a ~ ~,.~. , ; : ~ T f . 0~"~ 7 ,~,~'a~-'
: - <¢,. ~,): .~ ~i4.,
|'-
~.0~..0~
. . . . . . ~¢ Veiny ~
0U~'.]
Figure 8: Velocity vector distributions (cavitation)
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Figure 8 illustrates the vector distribution of the velocity on
the same plane as the one in Fig.5. The velocity vector has the
highest value of 94.6m/s in the gap, and where water flows
from the inlet into the cavity, 2 big vortices appear near to the
wall of the cavity.
Comparing Fig. 8 with Fig. 5, it can be concluded that even
if the highest value of velocity vector distribution (94.6m/s)
under the cavitation state is a little smaller than the
correspondent value (105.51 m/s) when only turbulent model is
considered, the cavitation phenomenon occurs actually in this
hydraulic valve.
CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, the interval flow in a hydraulic servo valve
was investigated for the turbulent flow situation. Besides,
cavitation phenomenon in the valve was also studied.
According to the analysis of the vapor volume fraction,
cavitation phenomenon occurs also in the gap between the
valve base and the spool. It can be concluded that cavitation
occurs in the region where the static pressure decreases below
the vaporization pressure of water. This cavitation region also
accords with the region where the flow velocity reaches a very
high value.
REFERENCES
[1] Feuser, A., and Seifert, V., 2002, "Simulation Technology
Support for Improvements in Modern Fluidic Drives,"
Proc., 3 ra International Fluid Power Conference, Shaker
Publishing Corp., Aachen, pp. 269-289.
[2] Schuster, G., 2002, "Possible Use of CFD in Research and
Development," Proc., 3 ra Internationl Fluid Power
Conference, Shaker Publishing Corp., Aachen, pp. 341-
348.
[3] Buerk, E., 2002, "Numerical (CFD-Simulation) and
Experimentally Determined Pressure Distributions and
Pressure Forces in Pneumatic Seat Valves," Proc., 3 rd
International Fluid Power Conference, Shaker Publishing
Corp., Aachen, pp. 383-396.
[4] Kipping, M., 1997, "Experimental Investigation and
Numerical Calculation of Internal Flow in a Hydraulic Slide
Valve," Ph.D. Thesis, Darmstadt University of Technology,
pp. 1-176.
-" ":- ~ - " ~" ~" ="
-'- , , • ,
[5] Dietze, M., 1996, "Measurement and Calculation of the
Internal Flow in Hydraulic Seat Valves," Ph.D. Thesis,
Or" % .' ,' 2 " "i
Darmstadt University of Technology, pp. 1-159.
[6] Stoffel, B., and Striedinger, R., 2000, "Cavitation"--- lecture
manuscript, Darmstadt University of Technology, pp. 2-3.
I
(~U~t,~TIIIIeQ4 [7] Gao, H., Fu, X., Yang, H. and Tsukiji, T., 2002, "Numerical
.......... 'o,%,~.,,~II and Experimental Investigation of Cavitating Flow within
Hydraulic Poppet Valve," Proc., 3rd International Fluid
Power Conference, Aachen, Germany, Vol. 1, pp. 331-339.
[8] Leino, T., Koskinen, K.T., and Vilennius, M. ,2003, "CFD -
202
6 Copyright © 2004 by ASME
 Modeling of a Water Hydraulic Poppet Valve- Comparison
of Different Modeling Parameters." The 8th Scandinavian
International Conference on Fluid Power, Tampere,
Finland, Vol. 1 (2), pp. 277-286.
[9] FLUENT 6.1 User's Guide, Chapter 10, pp. 15-16, Chapter
22, pp. 16-19.
[10] Reboud, J. L., and Delannoy, Y., 1994, "Two Phase Flow
Modeling of Unsteady Cavitation," 2nd Symposium an
Cavitation, Tokyo.
[ 11]Habr, K., 2001, "Simulation of Whole Hydraulic Systems,"
Ph.D. Thesis, Darmstadt University of Technology, pp. 93.

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