Numerical study on flow-induced noise for a steam stop-valve using large eddy simulation

The noise induced by the fluctuant saturated steam flow under 250 °C in a stop-valve was numerically studied. The simulation was carried out using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and ACTRAN. The acoustic field was investigated with Lighthill’s acoustic analogy based on the properties of the flow field obtained using a large-eddy simulation that employs the LES-WALE dynamic model as the sub-grid-scale model. Firstly, the validation of mesh was well conducted, illustrating that two million elements were sufficient in this situation. Secondly, the treatment of the steam was deliberated, and conclusions indicate that when predicting the flow-induced noise of the stop-valve, the steam can be treated as incompressible gas at a low inlet velocity. Thirdly, the flow-induced noises under different inlet velocities were compared. The findings reveal it has remarkable influence on the flow-induced noises. Lastly, whether or not the heat preservation of the wall has influence on the noise was taken into account. The results show that heat preservation of the wall had little influence.