The influence of the geometric parameters of the guide vanes on the energy efficiency of a pneumatic gate valve for heat mass transfer reactors

This article presents the results of a study of a vortex-type pneumatic gate valve. The valve is used to seal the raw material loading channels of heat and mass transfer reactors. The article gives a method for calculating a pneumatic vortex-type gate valve, developed to determine the optimal operating parameters of the device for given geometric parameters and to profile the optimal geometry of the valve for given operating parameters .The article provides an analysis of the mathematical model of the operation of a pneumatic vortex-type gate valve, from which the method for calculating the device was derived. It is shown that the mathematical description of the gas dynamics in the valve does not take into account the gas velocity components at the nozzle exit, which makes it inapplicable for the analysis of the influence of the guide vane configuration on the characteristics of the pneumatic gate valve. Numerical modeling of the gas flows in the valve shows that an increase in the thickness and number of blades in a certain range leads to a deterioration in the sealing capability of the valve and, as a consequence, to an increase in the mass flow rate and gas pressure required for sealing the reactor cavity and reducing the energy efficiency of the device. It is shown that a decrease in the blade angle within the range under study also leads to an increase in the required parameters of the gas for sealing the reactor cavity. The results show that the current method for calculating the operating and geometric parameters of pneumatic vortex-type gate valves does not allow the main geometric parameters of the valve - installation angle, thickness and number of guide vanes - to be calculated.