*Article* **Numerical Analysis of the Diaphragm Valve Throttling Characteristics**

**Yingnan Liu 1, Liang Lu 1,\* and Kangwu Zhu 2,3**


Received: 4 September 2019; Accepted: 19 September 2019; Published: 28 September 2019

**Abstract:** The throttling characteristics of the diaphragm valve are numerically studied in this paper. Firstly, the diaphragm deformation performance is analyzed by a finite element method, while the upper boundary morphology of the internal flow field under different valve openings was obtained. Then the two-dimensional simulation of the weir diaphragm valve flow field is carried out in order to explore the optimal design of flow path profile. The study shows that the throttling characteristics can be improved by flatting the ridge side wall, widening the top of the ridge and gently flatting the internal protruding of the flow path. In addition, using the local grid encryption techniques based on velocity gradient adaptive and y<sup>+</sup> adaptive can improve the accuracy of simulation results. Finally, a cavitation two-phase flow simulation is carried out. The results show that cavitation may occur below 50% opening of diaphragm valve in ultra-pure water system, which becomes more intense with the increase of inlet pressure and even leading to flow saturation on the micro-orifice state.

**Keywords:** diaphragm valve; throttling characteristics; profile design optimize; computational fluid dynamics
