Research on hydrodynamic characteristics and performance improvement of ball valve integrating fluid regulation and energy harvesting

With the development of fluid transmission and distribution network in the direction of intelligent pipe network, it is urgent to solve the power supply problem of many instruments in the pipe network. However, solving the problem of power supply for intelligent pipe network systems in remote areas and poor site conditions is a challenging task, and the power supply problem can be solved if the fluid energy in the pipe network can be harvested to power instruments such as sensors. Valve is essential equipment in pipe network system, and installing impeller in their spool can harvest fluid energy for power generation. In this paper, in order to improve the ability of the impeller to harvest fluid energy, the blade profile is optimized by parametrically defined method based on the Isight platform. The energy harvesting under different parameters is obtained through CFD simulation software, the Kriging model is established according to the sample data, and the NSGA-II algorithm is used to optimize. After optimization, the impeller shaft power is increased by 7.22%, the energy harvesting efficiency is increased by 7.50%, and the optimal blade profile is obtained. The ability of the impeller to harvest fluid energy is significantly improved.