Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 31 (2007) 505–512

www.elsevier.com/locate/etfs

Performance test and flow visualization of ball valve

Ming-Jyh Chern *, Chin-Cheng Wang, Chen-Hsuan Ma
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, 43 Sec. 4 Keelung Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan

Received 20 January 2005; accepted 27 April 2006

Abstract

The performance, flow patterns and cavitation phenomena of a ball valve are studied experimentally. Various patterns of flows in and
downstream the ball valves with respect to different valve openings and inlet velocities are visualized using a particle tracking flow visu-
alization method (PTFV). Meanwhile, cavitation phenomena are observed under certain conditions. Coefficients regarding to the per-
formance of valve are determined by pressure and flow rate measurements. The correlations between the valve performance and the
flow patterns are presented and discussed. The proposed method provides an effective way to determine the performance coefficients
of a valve and to understand the condition for the inception of cavitation.
 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Ball valve; Flow visualization; Cavitation

1. Introduction behind a blunt body. In addition, Kelso et al. [5] also mea-
sured the surface pressure distribution and investigated the
Valves have been used widely in various industries. balance between the pressure distribution and Reynolds
There are many purposes for valve usage in a piping sys- shear stress along the separation streamline and the surface
tem. One of them is to control the flow rate. For a manu- behind a surface-mounted blunt plate. If the flow structure
facturer of ball valves, it is very important to know the in a ball valve is available, then it would help engineers
characteristics of flows inside a ball valve. In addition to improve the performance of ball valves. Due to progress
the flow coefficient, there are other points which a manu- in the areas of flow visualization and computational anal-
facturer must consider. For example, the cavitation due ysis, it is now possible to observe the flow inside a ball
to local low pressure has to be avoided. Cavitation causes valve. The flow visualization can provide flow patterns of
noise and vibration during operation of a ball valve. For a ball valve, especially the cavitation phenomenon. Struc-
a long term operation, it may cause serious damage to a tures of vortices in flows inside a ball valve can be obtained
piping system. from the results of flow visualization. These vortices mainly
In the past, it was difficult to investigate details of the determine the energy loss (or the pressure drop). According
flow inside a ball valve, because it is not transparent. Infor- to the information obtained, cavitation can be predicted
mation regarding the ball valve performance was obtained using the cavitation coefficient.
from pressure and flow rate measurements. Hutchison [1], Many previous researches have considered the flow inside
Kirik and Driskell [2] and Pearson [3] provided useful a valve. Computational approaches are becoming popular
information on the design of a ball valve. Ota and Itasaka in this area. For example, Kerh et al. [6] utilized the finite ele-
[4] measured the surface pressure distribution behind a ment method to simulate transient interaction of fluid and
blunt body to understand the structure of the recirculation structure in a control valve. Mertai et al. [7] adopted a com-
mercial package, FLUENTTM, to investigate the flow around
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 2 27376496; fax: +886 2 27376460. a V-sector ball valve. Van Lookeren Campagne et al. [8] also
E-mail address: [email protected] (M.-J. Chern). used a commercial package, AVL-FireTM, to simulate flows

0894-1777/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.expthermflusci.2006.04.019
506 M.-J. Chern et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 31 (2007) 505–512

Nomenclature

Ccs cavitation index, Eq. (3) q volumetric flow rate, m3 h1

Cv flow coefficient, Eq. (2) ReD Reynolds number, Umi D
D diameter of straight pipe, m Ui averaged velocity at the inlet boundary, m s1
g gravitational acceleration, m s2 a angle of ball valve
K loss coefficient, Eq. (1) q density of water, kg m3
P pressure, bar m kinetic viscosity of water, m2 s1
Pv saturated vapor pressure, Pa / opening of ball valve

containing bubbles in ball valves. Davis and Stewart [9] tank. The upstream pressure is provided by high pressure
adopted FLUENTTM to study flows in global control valves. air which is supplied to the buffer tank from an air-com-
For three-dimensional analysis, Huang and Kim [10] uti- pressor system. The water in the buffer tank gains the pres-
lized FLUENTTM to simulate turbulent flows in a butterfly sure from the pressurized air and goes through the pressure
valve. The k–e model was employed in their numerical sim- regulator, which is installed at the outlet of the tank, to
ulation. Experiments were also conducted by several maintain a stable, desired pressure for valve operation.
researchers. Mertai et al. [7] established a water tunnel sys- Fig. 2 demonstrates the pictures of the established experi-
tem to conduct the performance test of a V-sector ball valve. mental facility. Water flows from the left hand side to the
They used an LDV measuring system to investigate the flow right hand side through the white pipe in Fig. 2(a). The
in ball valves. Davis and Stewart [11] employed a closed pip- transparent test section can be found at the black frame
ing system to test and observe a global control valve. in Fig. 2(a). The white buffer tank, which provides the sta-
The main purpose of this study is to provide flow char- ble stream to the test section, can be seen at the left hand
acteristics and flow patterns inside ball valves using an side of Fig. 2(b). The length of the pipe from the buffer
experimental approach. The correlation between the flow tank to the test section is 120D to get the fully developed
patterns and the valve performance are discussed. In gen- turbulent flow at the entrance of the valve. The control
eral, the openings of a ball valve and the inlet velocity play panel and the readings of the flowmeters are shown at
vital roles in the flow characteristics of ball valves. The fol- the right hand side of Fig. 2(b).
lowing sections describe the details of the proposed exper- When the valve performance is tested, the static pres-
imental procedure. sures, Pin and Pout are measured at 2D upstream of the
valve and 6D downstream of the valve, respectively, by
2. Experimental configuration using the mercury manometers, according to the standard
test method of ANSI/ISA-75.02-1996. The diameter of
Fig. 1 shows the experimental facility for both the valve the pipe is 38 mm. The pressure drop, DP, across the valve
performance measurement and the flow visualization. The is also detected by an inclined mercury U-tube manometer.
clean water contained in a reservoir tank of 600-l is drawn The accuracy of the manometer is within 3% of reading.
by a high pressure pump and delivered to a pressurized buf- The volumetric flow rate, q, is measured by several cali-
fer tank. The water flows sequentially through a pressure brated turbine flow meters which are installed in the down-
regulator, upstream flow conditioning section, transparent stream area of the valve. The accuracy of the flowmeter is
valve section, downstream flow conditioning section, flow within 2%. The range of operation for pressure (gauge) and
meters, and filters, then recirculates back to the reservoir inlet velocity are 0.5–1.8 bars and 2–10 m s1, respectively.
In terms of the Reynolds number, it is 0.64 · 105–
3.18 · 105.
The test section, as shown in Fig. 3, includes a plexiglass
tube and acrylic ball valve of nominal diameter 50.8 mm
(2 in.) and is CNC machined. The transparent test section
is connected to the upstream and downstream pipes via
the specially-designed fast-coupling mechanisms. The
laser-light beam emitted from an 5 W argon-ion laser is
transmitted through an optical fiber and then connected
to a 20 laser-light sheet expander. The laser-light sheet is
adjusted to a thickness of about 0.5 mm. In order to com-
pensate for the difference of the refraction indices between
the air and the curved plexiglass, a rectangular glass tank
filled with still water is enclosed around the whole test sec-
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental apparatus. tion. By using this method, the refraction of the laser-light
 M.-J. Chern et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 31 (2007) 505–512 507

Fig. 2. Pictures of experimental apparatus.

alignment rotatory angularity

1W Inova-70 rake support regulator
Ar-ion laser o
encoder
20 lase r-light test
sheet generator section
optical frame
fiber
laser-light
sheet

ball valve water o-ring

ball valve

inlet outlet
flow flow
fast-coupling stainless
stainless
connector steel tube
steel tube
valve set plexiglass
clamping
mechanism digital
video
camera

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of flow visualization.

plexiglass

Fig. 4. Schematic of angularity regulator.

sheet is effectively reduced. The angle of the model valve or The particle tracking flow visualization method (PTFV)
the corresponding opening is adjusted by an accurate is employed to reveal the flow patterns. When the flow
mechanism. Fig. 4 reveals the angle adjustment mecha- visualization is conducted, plastic particles made of poly-
nism. A circular cylinder is used to connect the ball valve styrene (PS) are seeded to the piping system to scatter
and the mechanism. An O-ring is employed to seal the ball the laser light via a particle seeding mechanism. The diam-
valve. The adjust mechanism contains a rotary encoder eters of polystyrene particles are between 30 and 70 lm and
whose resolution is 500 pulses per revolution. the specific weight is 1.03 at 25 C. Ignoring the effect of
508 M.-J. Chern et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 31 (2007) 505–512

turbulent diffusion, the relaxation time constant is esti-

mated to be less than 6.25 · 105 s and the Stokes number
is in the order of 106 within the range of experiment so
that slip between the flow and particles could be neglected
(Richard and John [12]). A digital camera and a CCD cam-
era which has 1018 · 1008 pixels are used to take the pic-
tures of path-line patterns and the animations of the
flows, respectively.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Flow conditions

Several inlet flows and valve openings have been consid-

ered. The values of inlet velocity for experiments range
from 2 to 6 m s1. The corresponding Reynolds numbers,
ReD ¼ qUli D, are 0.64 · 105, 1.27 · 105 and 1.91 · 105. The
valve openings, /, under tests are 100%, 88.9%, 77.8%,
66.7%, 55.6% and 44.4%. These values correspond to the
angles of the ball valve, a = 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50.

3.2. Characteristic coefficients

In general, a valve is evaluated using three coefficients:

the loss coefficient, the flow coefficient and the cavitation
index. Kirik and Driskell [2] provided formulae for these
coefficients. The loss coefficient represents the energy loss
due to a valve. It can be denoted as
DP
K¼1 ; ð1Þ
2
qU 2i
where Ui is the mean inlet velocity and DP is the pressure
drop measured between 2D in front of the valve and 6D be-
hind the valve. The flow coefficient refers to the capability
of flow in a valve, which is defined as
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
q G
Cv ¼ ; ð2Þ
0:865F p DP
where q is the volumetric flow rate, G is the specific gravity
relative to water at 4 C and Fp is the geometric factor.
G and Fp are set to unity in this study. To predict the con-
ditions where cavitation happens, the cavitation index is
used and is denoted as
Fig. 5. Results of flow visualization at ReD = 0.64 · 105. Valve angle
DP varies from 0 to 50.
C cs ¼ ; ð3Þ
P in  P v
where Pv refers to the saturated vapor pressure (2.339 kPa ball valve. The other one is behind the exit of the ball valve.
at 20 C). The curve of cavitation index with respect to the It is larger than the two inside the valve. The size of each
valve opening indicates the lowest value for which cavita- vortex can be estimated. Fig. 5(f) reveals a cavitation phe-
tion occurs. Severe cavitation is possible above the cavita- nomenon at / = 44.4%. A strong light scattering is found
tion index curve. No cavitation is expected below the curve. when cavitation incepts. The first inception of cavitation
appears at the edge of the vortex behind the ball valve.
3.3. Flow patterns When cavitation happens, noise is heard at the same time.
As the valve angle increases, cavitation is also found inside
Fig. 5 shows the path-line flow patterns at ReD = the valve. Fig. 6 shows the schematic diagram of the flow
0.64 · 105. Three vortices can be observed in the flow field patterns. As the opening of the valve decreases, these vor-
when the valve is not fully open. Two vortices are inside the tices grow and may cause more pressure drop. In other
 M.-J. Chern et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 31 (2007) 505–512 509

Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of flow in a valve.

words, more energy is lost due to these growing vortices. It cavitation happens increases in terms of Figs. 5, 7, and 8.
is interesting that many small eddies are observed at these The critical valve openings are 55.6% and 66.7% for
main vortices and constitute large eddies. ReD = 1.0 · 105 and 1.2 · 105, respectively. To the authors’
Figs. 7 and 8 demonstrate the flow patterns at ReD = knowledge, a picture of cavitation in a valve has not been
1.0 · 105 and 1.2 · 105, respectively. It is clear that these mentioned in other papers. In the past, the inception of
vortices grow when the opening of the valve decreases as cavitation is judged by noise. The proposed experimental
that has been shown in Fig. 8. In addition, when the inlet rig successfully provides the cavitation pictures. It is very
velocity increases, the critical valve opening at which the useful for valve designers and users.

3.4. Valve performance

The results of the flow visualization provide the flow pat-

terns in a ball valve and in the vicinity region of the valve,
while the measurements of pressure drop and volumetric

Fig. 7. Results of flow visualization at ReD = 1.0 · 105. Fig. 8. Results of flow visualization at ReD = 1.2 · 105.
510 M.-J. Chern et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 31 (2007) 505–512

flow rate are used to estimate the performance of a ball 7

valve. In general, the inlet velocity and the valve opening Uin (m/s) ReD
5
play very important roles to the performance of a ball valve. 6 2 0.64x10
5
3 0.95x10
5
3.4.1. The recirculation length behind the ball valve 5 4 1.27x10
5
Fig. 9 shows the locations of reattached points of the 5 1.59x10

recirculation behind the valve at ReD = 0.64 · 105. The 4

arrows indicate the reattached points at those pictures, Lbubble/D
which have to be zoomed in to find the attached points. 3
The reattached point of the recirculation is not steady, so
its time-averaged length determined by two hundred pic- 2
tures is provided. Fig. 10 reveals the estimation of the
time-averaged recirculation length changing with various 1
Reynolds number and valve openings. The recirculation
zone behind the ball valve dominates the pressure drop. 0
30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Energy is dissipated in this region. Hence, the larger the φ (%)
recirculation length, the more the pressure drop. It is
60 50 40 30 20 10 0
found that the experimental results at various Reynolds α (deg.)
closed fully open
numbers are the same at different openings. It turns
out that the recirculation length is not affected by the Fig. 10. Variation of circulation length. The error bars show the 95%
confidence intervals of the data points plotted according to Smith and
Wenhofer [14].

Reynolds number. As a result, the molecular viscosity

does not play a vital role in the flow at high Reynolds
numbers. It is the Reynolds stress that dominates the
recirculation length. For flows at high Reynolds num-
bers, the averaged flow behaviors are not significantly
affected by the variation of the Reynolds number but
by the fluctuation quantities [13]. Therefore, the
Reynolds number does not apparently affect the flow
pattern until the cavitation appears. Hence, the recircula-
tion length or the energy dissipation is only affected by
the valve position. It is clear that the recirculation length
gets increased as the valve opening get decreased. In
other words, the system has to pay more energy to
maintain the same volumetric flow rate or the same inlet
velocity at small valve opening.

3.4.2. The loss coefficient

The pressure drop is nondimensionalized as the loss
coefficient, K, in Eq. (1). As the valve opening decreases,
the pressure drop increases due to the growth of the vorti-
ces in terms of Figs. 10 and 11. Fig. 11 shows that the loss
coefficient is inversely proportional to the valve opening,
and it does not vary with the Reynolds number in the pres-
ent range of experiments. Experimental data are fitted by
an equation, K = 385.3  12.67/ + 0.141/2  0.000522/3.
Designers and users of ball valves can obtain the variation
of K according to this equation. Although this is not a gen-
eral equation for all of ball valves, subsequent experiments
regarding valves can also provide such an empirical equa-
tion for designers and users.

3.4.3. The flow coefficient

Fig. 9. Locations of reattached points of the recirculation with various The flow coefficient, Cv, refers to the capability of flow
openings. An arrow refer to a reattached point. of a ball valve. The definition of Cv is shown in Eq. (2).
 M.-J. Chern et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 31 (2007) 505–512 511

60 valve opening changes the flow coefficient. For valve

openings larger than 80%, the Reynolds number plays a
Uin (m/s) ReD
5 role which influences Cv as well. The increase of the
50 2 0.64x10
5
flow coefficient with the valve opening is nonlinear.
3 0.95x10
5
Hence, in order to conduct a linear control of the flow coef-
4 1.27x10
40 ficient, it requires another accessory. The fitted equation,
5 1.59x10
Cv = 2.23 + exp(0.0034/), is provided in Fig. 12. It is useful
for designers and users.
K 30
3.4.4. Cavitation in ball valve
20 Another important effect in a valve operation is
cavitation. The cavitation is caused by a local low pres-
sure induced by the flow conditions as shown in
10 Fig. 5(f), Fig. 7(e), and Fig. 8(d). The inception and
burst of bubbles moving with liquids are observed in
0
the experiments. Theoretically, the cavitation should
30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 appear at the critical condition that the local pressure
φ (%)
is lower than the saturated vapor pressure. Cavitation
60 50 40 30 20 10 0
causes not only noise but also vibration. Using the flow
closed α (deg.) fully open visualization technique, recording the inlet pressure and
pressure difference across the valve at cavitation, and
Fig. 11. Variation of loss coefficient. The error bars show the 95% employing the vapor pressure at valve outlet, the cavita-
confidence intervals of the data points plotted according to Smith and
Wenhofer [14]. The solid line refers to the fitted equation, K = 385.3 
tion index, Ccs, which indicates the critical condition for
12.67/ + 0.141/2  0.000522/3. occurrence of cavitation, can be calculated. Fig. 13
shows the results. It is clear that the critical cavitation
indexes vary with the inlet velocity and the valve
200 position. Above the curves, the cavitation is observed.
180 In other words, the lower the value of the cavitation
Uin (m/s) ReD
index, the more difficult the cavitation appears. For a
160 2 0.64x105
constant inlet velocity, Ccs decreases with the increase
3 0.95x105
140
of valve openings. Large pressure drop and high shear
4 1.27x105 effect present in the small opening region may cause
120 5 1.59x105

Cv 100
1.8
80 Uin (m/s) ReD
5
1.6 2 0.64x10
60 5
3 0.95x10
1.4 5
40 4 1.27x10
5
1.2 5 1.59x10
20

0 1.0
30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Ccs
φ (%)
0.8

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 0.6
closed α (deg.) fully open
0.4
Fig. 12. Variation of flow coefficient. The error bars show the 95%
confidence intervals of the data points plotted according to Smith and
0.2
Wenhofer [14]. The solid line refers to the fitted equation, Cv =
2.23 + exp(0.0034/).
0.0
30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
φ (%)
Fig. 12 demonstrates the flow coefficient determined by the
measured volumetric flow rate and pressure drop. For 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
flows at the same Reynolds number, Cv increases as the closed α (deg.) fully open
valve opening becomes large. The tendency can be found Fig. 13. Variation of cavitation index. The error bars show the 95%
in Fig. 12. For valve opening smaller than about 80%, Cv confidence intervals of the data points plotted according to Smith and
is not affected by the Reynolds number as well. Only the Wenhofer [14].
512 M.-J. Chern et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 31 (2007) 505–512

early occurrence of cavitation. Besides, since the cavita- Acknowledgements

tion indexes at large inlet Reynolds numbers are higher
than those at lower Reynolds numbers, it is easier to We are truly grateful to MIRDC Taiwan for their sup-
observe the cavitation occurring in the high velocity port (Project No.: 90EC2A179179).
regime.
References
4. Conclusions
[1] J.W. Hutchison, ISA Handbook of Control Valves, second ed.,
By employing the particle tracking flow visualiza- Instrument Society of America, Pittsburgh, 1976.
[2] M.J. Kirik, L.R. Driskell, Flow Manual for Quarter-Turn Valves,
tion method and the flow rate/pressure measure- Rockwell International Co., 1986.
ment technique, the performance characteristics and the [3] G.H. Pearson, Valve Design, Mechanical Engineering Publication,
inside-valve flow patterns are studied in this paper. The London, 1978.
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plate, Journal of Fluids Engineering 98 (1) (1976) 79–86.
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