How Complex Is CFD Analysis for a Pressure Reducing Regulator?

[blakej]

I'm looking for an example of CFD analysis on a pressure reducing regulator. I think may be fairly complicated because the main valve position is not fixed but rather controlled by the pressure differential acting across the valve, the main valve spring, and the load spring minus the pressure acting on the regulator's sensor. So to me it seems like this would be quite a bit more complicated to set up than say, the classic globe valve demo where the valve position is fixed.
I use solidworks but I don't have the flow sim package yet. I've looked around a little for a decent example of a flow sim on a pressure reducing regulator (using any CFD package) without any luck yet. Ideally, I'd like to eventually be able to set up simulations under many conditions in order to generate theoretical flow curves for regulators with large flow capacities which would be expensive to test directly.
Anyone know where I could find some examples or demos for something like this? Do you think that this kind of analysis could be set up in solidworks flow sim and yield reasonably meaningful data?

Thanks!
Blake

 

[Illmatic1]

There are several examples of CFD analysis of pressure reducing regulators available online. For example, this article from the Journal of Fluids Engineering provides a detailed description of how to use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to analyze a pressure reducing regulator. The authors provide a step-by-step guide to CFD setup and explain how the regulator's components interact with each other to control the flow rate.Other resources which provide examples of CFD analysis on pressure reducing regulators include this paper from the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer and this paper from the International Journal of Fluid Mechanics Research. Both provide detailed descriptions of how to set up CFD simulations for pressure reducing regulators and discuss the effects of the regulator's components on flow.In terms of setting up CFD simulations in Solidworks Flow Simulation, it is certainly possible to do so, although it may require a certain level of expertise. You can find tutorials and other resources online to help you get started, such as this one from Solidworks. Additionally, there are many CFD software programs available which may be better suited to your needs.