Thermoelastic investigation of a servo-actuated hydraulic plastic valve undergoing a time dependant internal pressure variation

This study aims at measuring the stress induced in a servo-actuated hydraulic plastic valve under pressure. Thermoelastic Stress Analysis (TSA) allowed to measure the stress distribution on the valve body and cover, when the valve was undergoing a periodic pressure variation. Previous destructive tests, carried out increasing the water static pressure inside the valve, produced a valve burst at a pressure not much higher than that, which can be reached in some real working conditions. TSA allowed spotting the points where the pressure reached particularly high values. These results will be used for the design of a new valve, which will have higher safety standards