Rotating-Disk-Activated Valve for an Exhaust System

FSI (fluid-structure interaction) analysis has many applications in the automotive industry such as the analysis of shock absorbers and valve mechanisms. In the ADINA System, the ADINA-FSI program provides fully coupled analysis of fluid flow with structural interaction problems, meeting the needs of automotive and other industries.

The animation above shows the velocity vectors on a cut through a valve which is part of an automobile exhaust system. The valve consists of a rotating plastic plate and two chambers at different pressures. The problem was modeled and analyzed with ADINA-FSI. The plate (shown in the stress plot below) is modeled as an elastic material and the fluid is modeled as air. During the sudden opening of the valve, a high-speed flow develops in a short period of time. The FSI analysis with high speed compressible flow allows not only the study of the fluid flow within the chambers but also analysis of the stresses that develop in the plastic plate which are critical for the design of the valve.