This CFD study focused on a detailed analysis of the cavitation in a water hydraulic valve for two specific opening positions.

The mesh was fully hexahedral and unstructured. The 3D CFD calculations were performed with FINE™/Open software. The barotropic law, implemented in FINE™/Open, was used to model the cavitation. Several operating points were computed for different cavitation levels.

The flow analysis showed that a blockage effect appeared for the smallest opening, due to the large cavitation pockets that developed in that case. The post-processing included static pressure, streamlines, density and void fraction contours in cutting planes.

The picture above shows the cavitation pockets for several calculations (void fraction isosurface displayed in blue color).