A Review of the CFD Method in the Modeling of Flow Forces

Hydraulic valves are key components of fluid power systems. They control the flow rate and pressure in hydraulic lines, actuator motion, and direction. Valves that control flow rate or pressure can be divided into two main categories: spool-type valves, where control components are similar to the piston inside a sleeve with control orifices; and seat-type valves, in which a poppet inside a seat opens and closes the flow. Forces induced on valve components during oil flow are crucial to the valve’s operational capabilities. They can be calculated using a formula originating from the momentum conservation equation for a two-dimensional control volume. Increasing demands for flow rate and pressure control accuracy cause flow forces to be calculated much more accurately than when using the analytical formula. Therefore, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are the only effective tool for their calculation. This paper reviews the CFD approaches used for calculating flow forces inside hydraulic valves. It presents typical approaches used for evaluating flow forces inside hydraulic valves. The oldest and most common are conducted for a fixed position of valve components for defined flow conditions, which do not cover all components of flow forces. The dynamic flow forces can be calculated using more complex CFD models using fluid–structure interaction (FSI) techniques. This paper presents available FSI techniques for the simulation of transient flow forces, mainly for valves whose component position is determined by the forces occurring during oil flow.