Needle valves are instrumentation devices with quick-opening inherent flow characteristics, used in pipelines requiring rapid flow supply immediately upon opening the flow path. For needle valves applied in liquefied hydrogen plants operating in cryog...
Needle valves are instrumentation devices with quick-opening inherent flow characteristics, used in pipelines requiring rapid flow supply immediately upon opening the flow path. For needle valves applied in liquefied hydrogen plants operating in cryogenic environments, it is necessary from the initial design stage to have various inherent flow characteristics in addition to quick-opening, depending on the intended usage. In this study, the inherent flow characteristics of a 1/2’’ liquid hydrogen needle valve were evaluated through computational fluid dynamics analysis. Disk shapes exhibiting various inherent flow characteristics were proposed by deriving the flow coefficient (Cv) according to changes in disk shapes. Among the disk shapes that directly affect the Cv, the disk length and slope angle were selected, and case studies were conducted with nine parameter combinations. From the results of the normalized Cv regarding to opening rates, disk lengths and slope angles exhibiting quick-opening, equal-percentage, and linear inherent flow characteristics were determined.