3D Views of Gas Control Valve Design
Complete Assembly
Internal Cross-Section
Pressure and Flow Distribution Predictions through the cycle
BPR Medical – www.bprmedical.com
BPR Medical Innovative products that enhance patient care
Every day BPR Medical’s gas therapy products are used in hospitals and homes to save and improve the lives of thousands of people. From supporting new-born babies to making life more comfortable for the elderly needing respiratory support, their products are trusted to deliver time and time again.
BPR’s reputation and the reputation of their customers depend on the reliability of their products, so when it comes to design and manufacture, they are proud perfectionists, focusing on user-centred design, rigorous production standards and stringent quality tests.
BPR are passionate about improving patient care throughout the world and look forward to working with their clients to achieve this.
In order to help better understand the performance of a Gas Control Valve, so that development responsibility could be taken over for a legacy design, BPR Medical commissioned 80/20 Engineering to provide some additional consultancy assistance to their ongoing R&D activity. Shown below is a brief summary of a CFD study investigating the complete transient patient duty cycle.
BPR Medical – Case Study Work
(Only some of the case study results shown)
This Gas Control Valve has a number of moving components that are designed to activate at different times through the patient’s breathing cycle and CFD enabled the complete cycle to be studied.
It was found that the dynamic behaviour of the Control Valve assembly was very sensitive to the precise representation of the internal flow restrictors and micron level leakage paths. Using CFD simulation, with Simerics-MP+, a complete three-dimensional pressure and velocity map could be obtained across the whole operational cycle and further simulations were carried out to refine certain ideas and test the impact of manufacturing and material specification constraints.
CFD techniques helped BPR Medical really understand why the Gas Control Valve has certain behavioural characteristics. The fluid flow paths could be easily visualized and re-circulation, or ‘dead zone’ areas, better understood. This then revealed performance issues so that the correct amount of gases could be efficiently delivered and at the right time each breathing cycle.
Using CFD simulation for flow performance prediction can dramatically reduce the amount of physical prototypes and test work required which will either reduce product development lead times, cost to their client or enhance the quality of the product received by the client.