CALCULATION OF THE SEALING SURFACE IN THE OPERATION OF

GATE VALVES

V. D. Tsipman LrDC 621.646.986:66.026.001.24

and O. N. Shpakov

To evaluate the reliability and serviceability of gate valves, it is essential to know

the stresses arising in the seals of the gate when the gate valve is being closed. When the
gate valve is completely closed, the stresses on the sealing surfaces are determined by the
force exerted by the medium on the surface on the disk, and by the contact area of the sealing
surfaces.
In the process of closing, at the instant when the outer edge of the sealing surface of
the disk touches the inner edge of the sealing surface of the housing or of the sealing ring,
the stresses in the seal are much larger than when the gate valve is completely closed. In
both cases we may regard the force acting on the disk as being the same. However, the con-
tact areas of the sealing surfaces of the disk and housing are different. It was noted in
[i] that this circumstance has to be taken into account~
Below we present formulas for determining the contact area S of the sealing surfaces of
the disk and housing at the instant when the flow of the medium is cutoff.
The geometrical diagram of the problem is presented in Fig. i. It can be seen that the
sought area is determined by a sum of integrals. Taking the integrals, we obtain the follow-
ing expression for determining the contact area in the case of equal dimensions of the sealing
of the disk and of the housing:

7 + +2(R arose~
where Rz, Rz is, respectively, the outer and inner radius of the sealing surfaces; a = Rz -
R2 9
For the case of gate valves frequently encountered in practice, where the width of the
sealing surfaces is much smaller than the nominal inside diameter, we obtain S--03631~(R~--R~)j,
i.e., the contact area of the sealing surfaces of the disk and of the housing at the instant
when the edge of the sealing surface of the disk touches the inner edge of the sealing surface
of the housing is about one third of the contact area when the gate valve is completely
closed.

Fig. i. Geometrical diagram of the contact-

ing of the sealing surfaces of the gate
valve: I, 2) sealing ring of the housing
and of the disk, respectively.

LITERATURE CITED
i. D. Kh. Garber, Power Generating Fittings with High Parameters [in Russian], Mashino-
stroenie, Moscow (1968).

Translated from Khimicheskoe i Neftyanoe Mashinostroenie, No. i, p. 15, January, 1991.

0009-2355/91/0102-0023512o50 9 1991 Plenum Publishing Corporaeion 25