Structural validation of the series 160 butterfly valves of VAMEIN DE ESPAÑA S.A. to achieve the Type Approval certification by the DNV-GL Notified Body

The project consists of simulating the structural behaviour of the aluminium body of a butterfly valve to verify through FEM techniques that the design meets the criteria established at the specified pressure. VAMEIN provides the dimensional data, experimental data of the valve body material and specifies the working pressure.

DPO FLUID transfers said data to the virtual work environment, evaluating the structural behaviour of the equipment and verifying if it finally meets the criteria specified from the data extracted from the simulations.

First, silkscreens and elements that do not add mathematical entity to the simulation are eliminated and a 3D rendering of the model is performed.

Once the work geometry is finished, a mesh is generated whose quality control parameters have been the “Aspect ratio” and the “Skewness” of the elements that make it up. These parameters refer to the slenderness and the shape of the cells respectively. An ideal cell is one that is perfectly equilateral, the further it moves away from this, the worse the values ​​of the parameters will be. After verifying that the mesh meets these parameters, tests are performed on different mesh sizes to ensure that the solution does not change, thus ensuring that the result is correct.

Finally, the structural case is configured where the main actuation force and the boundary conditions are specified according to the working conditions of the equipment. The Von-Mises stresses are evaluated at each point of the valve and compared with the established criteria to verify that the valve complies with it.

The completion of this validation project confirms DPO FLUID’s FEM capabilities to make structural calculations, as well as the suitability of VAMEIN’s aluminium valves to meet the criteria established in the project.

The “report” of this study has contributed to VAMEIN obtaining the “DNV GL TYPE APPROVAL”, which allows it to improve its presence in the marine sector.