In water supply installations, noise pollution often occurs. As a basic component of a system,a flush valve may frequently be a source of noise and vibration generated by cavitation or high turbulencelevels. During valve closing or valve opening, cavitation can be a problem. In order to decrease the noiseand to improve the design inside a flush valve, some experimental and numerical analyses were carriedout in our laboratories. These analyses led to some improvements in the design of the valves. Cavitationoccurrence was more specifically addressed, using numerical simulation, and this is the main aim of thepresent paper. Particularly, the use of a simplified numerical test without cavitation model is comparedwith one using a cavitation model. In order to define potential cavitation risks in some parts of the valve, ithas been found that a simplified approach provides an accurate overview. Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) simulations of cavitating flow of water through an industrial flush valve were performed usingthe Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with a near-wall turbulence model. The flow wasassumed turbulent, incompressible and steady. Two commercial CFD codes (Fluent 6.3 and Star CCM+3.04.009) were used to analyse the effects of inlet pressure as well as mesh size and mesh type on cavitationintensity in the flush valve.
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