S. V. Jalikop, B. Scheichl, S. J. Eder:
"Fluid-Structure Interaction of Coupled Valves in Sucker Rod Pump";
Talk: COMSOL Conference 2019 Cambridge, Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; 2019-09-24 - 2019-09-26.
We simulate the fluid-driven interaction between two dynamically coupled valves designed to work in conjunction with each other. Such interacting valves are extensively used in sucker rod pumps for oil extraction. These pumps essentially consist of a pair of ball check valves inside a long tubing that reaches down to the oil reservoir. One of the valves is fixed at the bottom of the tubing and is called the standing valve (SV), whereas the other oscillates up and down the tubing above the SV and is called the travelling valve (TV). During the upstroke, the TV is closed and acts as a syringe sucking the fluid through the, now open, SV into an expanding chamber between the two valves. On the downstroke, the fluid collected in the chamber is forced up into the tubing as the check ball of the SV closes the valve and the TV is open. The opening and closing of the valves is governed by the flow of the fluid being pumped, and hence we are solving a fluid-structure interaction problem.
ALE method, CFD, elasto-hydrodynamics, finite-element method, fluid-structure interaction, moving-mesh method, sucker rod pump