Archon has performed dozens of valve qualifications for use in the nuclear power industry.
Qualification of 18” Butterfly Valve:
This example was a project performed for a valve supplier who was providing an 18” butterfly valve as a safety related component to a nuclear power plant. Shake testing was cost prohibitive; therefore the qualification was performed using an ANSYS Finite Element Analysis (FEA) program.
The analysis load cases included pressure, weight, seismic acceleration and operator torque. The analysis provided stress output, which was compared to ASME III stress limitations, deflections and natural frequencies.
The report conclusion stated that the combined stresses in the valve were below ASME allowable limits, the deflections were not significant and the natural frequency of the valve and operators was greater than 33 hz, making the assembly seismically rigid.
The project was performed under our nuclear 10CFR50 quality assurance program.
Based on our analysis, the client was not required to perform a costly shake test of the valve.
