i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1

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Study on the high-pressure hydrogen gas flow

characteristics of the needle valve with different
spool shapes

Jianjun Ye a, Junxu Cui a, Zhengli Hua b, Junlong Xie a,*, Wenzhu Peng c,
Wei Wang a
a
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
b
Institute of Process Equipment, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
c
Foshan Xianhu Laboratory of the Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Foshan,
528200, China

highlights

A large pressure gradient of hydrogen flow will be generated at the valve spool.

The valve with arc cone spool has a larger flow rate and a smaller pressure drop.

The arc cone spool can reduce the high-speed zone and the eddy current in the valve.

article info abstract

Article history: The needle valve is a critical control unit for high-pressure hydrogen systems such as
Received 10 January 2022 hydrogen refueling stations, which is the infrastructure of hydrogen energy. As an
Received in revised form important part of the needle valve, the valve spool affects the flow characteristics of
5 March 2022 hydrogen in the valve and then affects the working performance and safety of the high-
Accepted 8 April 2022 pressure hydrogen valve. In this paper, based on the real hydrogen gas model and the
Available online 11 June 2022 finite volume method, a CFD model of the high-pressure hydrogen needle valve is con-
structed to find out the influence of the valve spool shape on the performance and flow
Keywords: characteristics of the high-pressure hydrogen needle valve. The results show that high-
High-pressure hydrogen pressure hydrogen will produce a sudden change in pressure around the valve spool and
Spool shape there will be a local high-speed area, and the turbulent intensity will also increase. The arc
Needle valve cone spool can increase the flow by 2%e8% at different openings of the valve, and reduce
Throttling characteristic the maximum speed at the spool by 15% at small openings. In addition, the sudden change
Pressure distribution of pressure and the eddy current have also been improved. Flat-bottomed cone spool re-
duces turbulence intensity and energy consumption. Therefore, it can be concluded that
changing the shape of the valve spool to have a larger flow area at a small opening can
make the high-pressure hydrogen valve have a better flow field distribution. Flattening the
cone angle of the spool can improve the turbulent flow in the valve. The research in this
paper can provide research accumulation and theoretical support for the optimization
design of the needle valve of the high-pressure hydrogen system.
© 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jlxie@hust.edu.cn (J. Xie).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.04.073
0360-3199/© 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1
Introduction
Hydrogen energy has become an ideal secondary energy
source due to its advantages of cleanliness, high efficiency,
zero carbon, and sustainable use. Related industries such as
hydrogen refueling stations, hydrogen energy vehicles, and
fuel cells have developed rapidly. In these fields, the storage
and transportation of hydrogen are currently carried out in
the form of high pressure in most cases [1e3] because of its
higher efficiency and better economy [4,5].
As the flow control unit of the hydrogen system, the high-
pressure valve is the key component of the entire hydrogen
system. Whether it is hydrogen storage, hydrogen trans-
mission, or hydrogen use, high-pressure hydrogen valves
must be used in conjunction with them, and their perfor-
mance is of great significance to the safety and stability of the
entire hydrogen system [6,7]. The needle valve has become
one of the commonly used high-pressure hydrogen valves due
to its simple shape, high-pressure resistance, and good sealing
performance. The high-pressure hydrogen needle valve is
generally used for opening and closing the entire pipeline,
which is the first challenge to the pipeline safety of the high-
pressure hydrogen system.
The valve spool is one of the most critical components
inside the needle valve of the high-pressure hydrogen system.
On the one hand, the shape of the valve core determines the
size of the flow capacity, that is, the throttling performance of
the valve; on the other hand, due to the change of the flow
area, the pressure and speed will have a sudden change at the
spool. Especially at small openings, the flushing of high-speed
hydrogen flow will increase the risk of damage to the valve
spool and sealing parts. Spool shape also affects vortex gen-
eration and turbulence in the valve, which affects valve sta-
bility. Therefore, the shape of the valve spool determines the
flow characteristics of the high-pressure hydrogen flow inside
the valve, which in turn affects the working performance and
service life of the high-pressure hydrogen system valve. Prop-
erly changing the shape of the spool can effectively reduce the
buffer brush and reduce the degree of turbulence. The research
of Nazari-Sharabian [8] in the erosion of bridge piers can pro-
vide a certain reference. So, it is very important to study the
influence of the valve core shape on the valve flow character-
istics and to find out the pressure, velocity and turbulence
variation laws at the valve spool for the structural optimization
and application of high-pressure hydrogen system valves.
Ye et al. [9] established a CFD model of a high-pressure
hydrogen check valve. Based on this model, the flow law of
high-pressure hydrogen during the opening process is stud-
ied, which mainly includes the speed change and pressure
distribution of the hydrogen flow. After that, the fluid force
acting on the valve spool and the resulting acceleration and
velocity are quantitatively analyzed. Nam et al. [10] studied
the flow characteristics of the hydrogen flow control valve
and found that as the pressure difference increases, the mass
flow and flow coefficient are often different from the volume
flow. Due to the nozzle effect of the bottleneck, it will affect
the hydrogen temperature, and the change of density will
affect the mass flow. Ariyadi et al. [11] studied the flow
characteristics and noise of the solenoid valve during the fast
11371
charging of hydrogen gas. The results showed that severe
turbulence downstream of the valve caused a lot of noise.
Severe turbulence can be reduced by modifying the flow path
at the outlet channel, which also reduces aerodynamic noise
by 2%e12% depending on the operating conditions. Jin et al.
[12,13] studied a multi-stage pressure reducing valve suitable
for hydrogen refueling stations. This shape mainly achieves
pressure reduction through the orifice. Through the study of
two media of superheated steam and hydrogen, they found
that this shape has better flow and temperature characteris-
tics under complex conditions. Chen et al. [14,15] studied the
influence of structural parameters on the flow law of a
hydrogen multi-stage pressure reducing valve. They found
that the sleeve and the valve spool are the core components
of the pressure reduction process. The increase of the two will
lead to greater hydrogen kinetic energy, turbulent vortex, and
energy consumption.
In addition, there are many related studies on the spool
structure: Sreekala et al. [16] studied the influence of stop
valve aperture configuration on the valve flow coefficients.
The results showed that the valve coefficient depends on the
aperture shape, and the valve with triangular apertures has
the largest flow coefficient. Ye et al. [17] studied the effect of
the spool-head angle on the movement performance of the
valve spool and flow field characteristics. The results showed
that the acceleration, velocity and kinetic energy the spool
hits the stopper increase by 7%, 16%, and 33% when the spool-
head angle increases from 10 to 50 , which enhances the
impact effect of the valve spool. Fan et al. [18,19] studied the
effect of different spool structures on the valve under different
pressures. The results show that the change of the valve spool
structure can increase the flow capacity of the valve by up to
20% and increase the fluid force by 140%. At the same time,
different valve spool structures will also affect the flow field
distribution of the valve. Lin et al. [20] studied the influence of
the spool angle of the valve on the flow characteristics of the
shut-off valve. And the results showed that at a small opening,
the spool angle increases, the pressure drop decreases, and
the maximum speed and range also decrease. However, at a
large opening, the change of the spool angle has little effect on
the valve characteristics. It is also found that increasing the
cone angle can also reduce the occurrence of cavitation and
erosion.
At present, many scholars have proposed some new
methods for the optimization design and numerical simula-
tion of valves. Bender et al. [21] presented a numerical
framework for studying the transient behavior of hydraulic
valves, especially for poppet valve type design of digital hy-
draulic systems, which can determine the validity of the state-
of-the-art lumped parameter models (LPM) of fluid dynamical
phenomena during switching of such valves. Thanh et al.
[22,23] established a new hydrogen valve structure optimiza-
tion method through three stages of topology optimization,
lattice optimization and numerical evaluation, and designed a
new valve based on this method. The results obtained show
that the newly designed valve has a longer life and lower
quality than the original valve. El Assad et al. [24] modeled the
HET (hole erosion test) using modeling software based on
the Navier Stokes equations, this model tackles also the sin-
gularity of the interface structure/water using wall laws for a
11372 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1

flow turbulence. This work can provide a reference for spool
erosion quantification and prediction. Adeyemi et al. [25]
developed a mathematical model using a purely analytical
approach to quantify the effect of turbulent flow on pressure
transients in porous media. And the exact analytical solution
of the dimensionless equation is obtained by the method of
Boltzmann transformation. The obtained results demonstrate
the efficiency and accuracy of the Boltzmann transform
method in solving such complex problems.
According to the literature, it can be observed that there are
not many researches on high-pressure hydrogen system
valves, and most of them focus on the types of check valves,
safety valves, and pressure reducing valves. In addition, the
researches on the valve spool structure mainly used water or
air as the medium, which cannot reflect the flow character-
istics of the hydrogen flow inside the valve. It can also be
found that many weaknesses have been exposed in the study
with water and air as the medium, such as the high-pressure
and high-speed fluid at the throttling element will wash the
valve core, and the vortex around the valve core will affect the
stability of the valve, etc. Due to the simple nature of water
and air, the effects of these weaknesses on the valve are not
obvious. However, when the medium is hydrogen, due to its
special physical properties under high-pressure conditions
and the reverse Joule-Thomson effect during throttling, the
flow field in the valve is more severe and complex. Coupled
with the corrosiveness of hydrogen, it is prone to hydrogen
embrittlement leakage and other phenomena. Generally, the
hydrogen will have a greater impact on the working charac-
teristics and safety and stability of the valve. Therefore,
studying the real flow state of high-pressure hydrogen in the
valve and quantifying the complex flow field changes is a key
step in the research of high-pressure hydrogen needle valves.
A CFD model of the needle valve in the high-pressure
hydrogen system is constructed based on the real hydrogen
state equation, which can simulate the real flow state of the
high-pressure hydrogen flow in the valve in the actual appli-
cation process. Based on this model, the working performance
and the internal hydrogen flow characteristics of the high-
pressure hydrogen needle valve are studied in detail. Firstly,
the throttling characteristics of the high-pressure hydrogen
needle valve with different spool shapes are analyzed. Sec-
ondly, the variation law of pressure, velocity and eddy current
distribution of valve spool under different opening degrees are
studied. Finally, the influence of different spool structures on
the turbulence intensity is analyzed. This research can pro-
vide a reference for the structural optimization and applica-
tion of the high-pressure hydrogen needle valve.
threaded to limit the lateral displacement and rotation of the
valve stem. When working, apply torque and turn the handle
to make the valve stem drive the valve spool upward. The gap
at the spool gradually increases, and high-pressure gas cir-
culates. Through the up and down movement of the valve
spool, the flow adjustment function of the valve is realized.
The maximum stroke distance of the spool is 4.5 mm. Use
valve opening (%) to indicate the position of the spool. Fig. 1(b)
shows the relationship between the valve opening and the
stroke distance. The specific calculation formula is as follows:
ð4:5  yÞ
valve opening ¼  100% (1)
4:5
A three-dimensional model was established for the flow
channel in the valve, as shown in Fig. 1(c). The diameter of the
pipeline connected with the inlet and outlet of the needle
valve is 2.5 mm, and extend the inlet and outlet pipes to
60 mm to eliminate the influence of unstable hydrogen flow.
In order to compare the influence of spool shapes on the
flow characteristics of the needle valve in the high-pressure
hydrogen system, three types of spool shape models have
been constructed based on the current common spool forms,
as shown in Fig. 2: (a) is a straight-sided cone spool. The shape
is simple, and it is commonly used for high-pressure needle
valves [26]. It is often used in high-pressure fuel injectors to
control the spray process [27]. (b) is a valve spool with an arc
edge. This shape changes the cone angle of the spool, so that
the valve has a large flow area at a small opening, and the
changes in different openings are more gradual [28]. (c) is a
flat-bottomed cone valve spool, which is used in different
types of valves such as gate valves and one-way valves, which
can effectively slow down the erosion of gas [29,30].
Governing equation
In this paper, the finite volume method is used to simulate the
hydrogen flow in the needle valve of the high-pressure
hydrogen system. The continuity equation, momentum
equation, and energy equation must be solved to obtain the
high-pressure hydrogen flow process inside the valve. The
equations are as follows:
vr v
þ ðrui Þ ¼ 0 (2)
vt vxi
Here, r is the density of hydrogen, ui is the velocity tensor,
and xi refers to the coordinate direction. The subscript i ¼ 1, 2,
3 refers to the x, y, and z directions, respectively.
vr v
 vp v  
ðrui Þ þ rui uj ¼  þ tij  ru0i u0j þ rFi (3)
vt vxj vxi vxj

Physical and mathematical model of high- Here, p is the static pressure, Fi is the volume force in the i
pressure needle valve direction, tij is the stress tensor, and ru0i u0j is the Reynold
stress.
3D model of high-pressure needle valve  
vui vuj 2 vui
tij ¼ m þ  dij (4)
vxj vxi 3 vxj
The object studied in this paper is the high-pressure manual
needle valve commonly used in hydrogen storage systems, 0 1
and the specific structure is shown in Fig. 1(a). It is composed v v v @ vT X
ðrEÞ þ ½ui ðrE þ pÞ  ¼ keff  hj jj þ uj tij A þ Sh (5)
of the gasket, handle, valve body, valve stem, valve spool, and vt vxi vxi vxi j
so on. The valve stem, the locking cap, and the valve body are
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1 11373

Fig. 1 e High-pressure hydrogen needle valve. (a) The components of the valve. (b) The relationship between valve opening
and stroke distance. (c) Flow-channel model of the valve.

Fig. 2 e Shapes of three different spool.

Here, jj is the diffusion flux of the component, keff is the predict the characteristics of high-pressure hydrogen flow.
effective thermal conductivity. The first three teams on the The real hydrogen gas model can be expressed as follows:
right-hand side of the equation describe the energy conver-
Mp
sion which is brought by heat conduction, component diffu- r¼ (7)
ZRT
sion and viscous dissipation correspondingly. Sh refers to
chemical reaction heat and other defined volume heat source Here, r is the density of hydrogen, R is the molar gas con-
terms. stant, 8.3145, T is the absolute temperature, p is the pressure,
The energy E per unit mass fluid is: MPa, M is the molar mass, 2.016 g/mol, and the compressibility
factor Z can be described as a function as follows:
p ui 2
E¼h  þ (6) 6 X
X 4  j1
r 2 100
Z¼ vij pi1 (8)
i¼1 j¼1
T
Real hydrogen gas model
Here, vij is the coefficients [31].
The real flow behavior of hydrogen in the high-pressure nee- Johnson et al. [32] used the NIST real hydrogen gas model to
dle valve is complex and changeable. This study uses a real simulate the temperature change during the hydrogen storage
gas model to describe the compressibility of high-pressure filling process, and the numerical results have passed the
hydrogen. Zheng [31] proposed a standardized hydrogen experimental verification, which is also suitable for the study
compression coefficient equation, which can accurately of the flow characteristics of the needle valve we studied.
11374 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1
CFD model of the needle valve in the high-
pressure hydrogen system
Domain decomposition and mesh generation
This paper has carried out a structural grid division for the
flow channel model of the needle valve of the high-pressure
hydrogen system to ensure the quality of the grid and the
accuracy of the calculation. In order to ensure the calculation
efficiency, the 3D model of the valve flow channel is divided
into five parts: the inlet and outlet extension pipeline zone,
the inlet and outlet pipeline zone, and the valve spool zone.
The inlet and outlet extension pipeline has little effect on the
valve performance, so the mesh density is low. The valve inlet
and outlet and spool are the key parts that affect the results,
so the mesh density is large. The speed and pressure gradient
of the valve spool zone is large, and the mesh quality at the
cone angle of the valve spool is easily affected. So in order to
better simulate the flow characteristics at a small opening, the
spool surface and cone angle are encrypted. The overall
meshing situation is shown in Fig. 3.
Parameter settings
Aiming at the complex flow of high-pressure hydrogen in the
needle valve, the Fluent software is used to calculate. The
density-based solver is used, and the standard k-ε turbulence
model is selected. The study by Yu et al. [33] shows that for
tapered spools, the flow resistance coefficient calculated by
the standard kee turbulence model is closer to the actual re-
sults than other turbulence models. The fluid medium inside
the high-pressure needle valve is hydrogen with initial pres-
sure 10 MPa. Pressure inlet and outlet are chosen as the
boundary conditions respectively. This study focuses on the
Fig. 3 e Structural grids of the five flow domains.
flow characteristics of hydrogen, so the wall surfaces were
assumed as non-slip boundary conditions and adiabatic. The
turbulent energy and dissipation terms all adopt the second-
order upwind style to ensure accuracy.
Verification of the CFD model
In order to verify the validity of our model establishment and
calculation method, we selected H. Chattopadhyay's [34] work
for comparison. The pressure regulating valve has a shape
similar to the high-pressure needle valve. And both valves use
tapered spools for throttling. Fig. 4 shows the flow charac-
teristics of the pressure regulating valve calculated by the two
methods under different inlet and outlet pressure. We
compared the two openings at 25% and 100% to make the
verification process more comprehensive. It can be seen that
the flow characteristics calculated by the two methods tend to
be the same, and the maximum difference under the same
opening and the same pressure difference does not exceed 4%.
The above results show that the method adopted in this paper
can effectively simulate the flow characteristics of the needle
valve in the high-pressure hydrogen system.
Verification of grid independence
To avoid the influence of the number of grids on the simula-
tion results, this paper sets 8 grid densities of 0.2 million, 0.45
million, 0.8 million, 1 million, 1.3 million, 1.6 million, 2 million,
and 3 million for grid independence verification. Monitoring
the change of the valve outlet flow rate with the number of
grids, which is shown in Table 1. It can be seen that when the
number of grids is 1.6 million, the outlet flow has stabilized.
The number of grids is finally determined to be 2 million to
ensure the quality of the grid and the optimal configuration of
computing resources.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1
Fig. 4 e Flow rates with the two methods.
Analysis of results
Throttling characteristic
The high-pressure needle valve mainly plays the role of flow
adjustment, so the flow characteristics are very important to
it. This article compares the changes in the outlet flow of the
valve under different spool shapes and different openings. As
shown in Fig. 5, it can be seen that the flow of the valve in-
creases with a logarithmic function as the opening increases.
The mass flow rate increases rapidly with the upward move-
ment of the valve spool under the small opening. This is
because the flow area of the valve suddenly increases from
closed to open, and the valve spool is tapered. At a small
opening degree, the flow area increases as the valve spool
moves upward, which is also very fast, so the rapid increase in
the circulation area leads to a sharp rise in flow. After that, the
flow rate slowly increases and finally stabilizes. When the
valve opening degree reaches about 40%, the valve flow rate
has basically reached a stable state and reached the
maximum flow rate. This is because the flow area of the valve
changes slowly at a larger opening degree. When the opening
is more than 40%, the valve spool has passed the outlet posi-
tion, and the flow area has been larger than the cross-
sectional area of the pipe, and basically no longer changes.
So the flow rate also tends to be stable. It can also be seen that
Table 1 e Verification of grid independence.
Number of grids (million) Mass flow rate (kg/s)
0.2 0.013548
0.45 0.013989
0.8 0.013888
1 0.013853
1.3 0.013836
1.6 0.01383
2 0.013839
3 0.013838
11375
Fig. 5 e The mass flow rate of the needle valve in a high-
pressure hydrogen system at different openings.
after 60% opening, the flow rate drops slightly. This is because
the flow area at the valve spool is already greater than the flow
area of the pipeline at this opening, and the main factor that
determines the flow rate changes from the flow area to the
hydrogen flow velocity. The flow velocity at a large opening is
slightly lower than that at 60% opening, so the flow rate is
slightly reduced.
From the perspective of structural influence, the mass flow
rate of the valve with arc cone spool is larger than the other
two shapes at each opening. Below 60% opening, the mass
flow rate of the valve with arc cone spool is about 8% larger
than that of the other two structures, and the maximum flow
rate is about 2% larger than that of the others. This is because
the arc cone spool maximizes the flow area at each opening.
For the flat-bottomed and straight cone spool, the tapered
angle is the same, so the flow area is basically the same at a
small opening. When the opening is small, the flow area at the
spool is the most critical factor affecting the flow rate, so the
flow rate of the flat-bottom and the straight-sided cone is
basically the same. At a larger opening, the flat bottom has a
larger flow velocity relative to the straight-sided cone spool, so
the flow rate is slightly larger than that of the straight cone
shape.
Pressure analysis of high-pressure hydrogen flow
In order to compare the flow characteristics of the valve with
different openings and different spool shapes, the pressure
and velocity contours of the middle section of the valve are
analyzed. Fig. 6 presents a pressure distribution of the middle
section of the needle valve in the high-pressure hydrogen
system with different valve spool shapes. It can be observed
that when the high-pressure gas flows out from the inlet
through the valve spool, the pressure gradually decreases
from the inlet to the outlet. There are low-pressure areas on
both sides of the valve spool and the inlet and outlet pipes of
the valve. It is caused by sudden changes in the circulation
area at the pipe connection. And the pressure gradient at the
valve spool is more obvious at a small opening. The valve
11376 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1
spool is now near the inlet position, which causes a sudden
change in the flow area, so a larger pressure gradient is
generated. With the valve opening increasing, the flow area
gradually becomes larger and tends to be stable, so the pres-
sure unevenness at the valve spool also gradually decreases,
but the pressure gradient at the inlet and outlet pipelines
exists at each opening.
From the perspective of the spool shape, at a small open-
ing, the pressure gradient at the arc cone spool is lower. This is
because the shape of the arc cone changes the angle of the
valve spool. Moreover, the small opening has a larger flow
area than the other two valve spools, and the transition under
different opening degrees is more stable. Lin et al. also found a
similar rule in the study of the cone angle of the globe valve.
As the number of cone angles increases, the throttling area
increases, so the pressure drop at the valve core decreases.
However, increasing the spool angle does not have a signifi-
cant effect on increasing the flow rate at large openings. And
for the high-pressure hydrogen needle valve, increasing the
cone angle of the valve core will make the flow field change
more violently at the moment of opening and at a small
opening, thus affecting the stability of the valve. As the
opening degree increases, the difference in internal pressure
distribution of the three valve spool shapes is no longer
obvious.
As mentioned above, the pressure drop of the needle valve
of the entire high-pressure hydrogen system mainly exists at
the position of the spool at a small opening. In order to
Fig. 6 e Pressure distribution of different valve spool shapes at different opening degrees.
quantify the pressure drop at this place, a straight line parallel
to the surface of the valve spool at the gap between the valve
body and the valve spool was taken as shown in Fig. 7. The
pressure change on the line with the position in the x direction
is monitored, and the pressure drop changes under different
opening degrees and different valve spool shapes.
Fig. 7 shows the pressure change on the monitoring line
with the distance in the X-direction when the high-pressure
hydrogen system needle valve with a straight cone valve
spool at different openings. The results show that the pres-
sure on the line changes at different openings is basically the
same. In the range of 0e1.4 mm, the monitoring line is mainly
located in the inlet section of the lower part of the spool. Due
to the throttling effect of the spool, part of the hydrogen flow is
collected here, so the pressure is relatively large and remains
basically stable. Different opening degrees have different
throttling effects. The hydrogen flow is easy to pass through
with a large opening degree, and the collection is less, so the
pressure is smaller. On the contrary, the pressure is higher
when the opening degree is small. After that, in the range of
1.4e1.6 mm, the pressure on the monitoring line has a huge
decrease, and the decrease speed is approximately linear. This
is because the section is in the gap between the valve spool
and the valve body, and the flow area here suddenly de-
creases, and the flow rate increase rapidly, so the pressure
decreases rapidly. As the valve gradually opens, the flow area
gradually increases, and the sudden change in pressure is
gradually reduced. Therefore, the overall pressure change at a
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1
Fig. 7 e Pressure drop on the monitoring line under
different openings of the needle valve in the high-pressure
hydrogen system.
large opening tends to be gentle. Finally, in the range of
1.6e2.5 mm, the pressure decreases slowly, because this sec-
tion is located on the top of the spool and is connected to the
outlet section, and the flow area of the outlet pipe is reduced,
so the speed of the hydrogen flow increases when flowing
through here, which causes a slow decrease in pressure.
Fig. 8(a) shows the pressure drop of the needle valve in the
high-pressure hydrogen system with three different spool
shapes on the monitoring line at 5% opening. It can be
observed that the pressure change of the needle valve with the
three spool shapes on the monitoring line is Consistent, stable
in the range of 0e1.4 mm. But because the three valve spool
shapes make the flow area different, the concentration of
hydrogen flow here is also different, so the pressure is
different. The flow area of the straight cone spool and flat-
bottomed cone spool is the same, so the pressure is basically
the same. The arc cone valve spool has a larger flow area, so
the hydrogen flow collected in the front of the valve spool is
reduced, and the pressure is lower than the other two shapes.
After that, there is a large pressure drop at 1.4e1.6 mm, and
slowly decreases in the range of 1.6e2.5 mm. The high-
pressure needle valve with the arc cone spool presents a
lower pressure drop, which is similar to the pressure distri-
bution shown in Fig. 6. This is because the arc cone valve spool
makes the gap between the valve body and the valve spool at a
small opening larger, and the change is gentler, so the
hydrogen flow has a lower speed, a higher pressure, and the
overall pressure drop is lower.
Fig. 8(b) shows the pressure drop on the monitoring line of
the needle valves in the high-pressure hydrogen system with
three different spool shapes at 10% opening. It can be seen
that the overall situation is basically the same as that at 5%
opening. But in the range of 0e1.1 mm, the pressure shows a
slow upward, which is different from the change range and
trend when the opening degree is 5%. This is because after the
opening degree increases, more hydrogen flow per unit time
can flow through the gap between the valve spool and the
valve body, which affects more hydrogen flow near the orifice.
11377
Therefore, the spool area where the pressure drop change is
enlarged, but the overall pressure drop is reduced. This is
because the speed of the upper part of the valve spool and the
connecting part of the outlet is reduced, and the pressure is
increased, so the pressure difference between the front and
rear is also reduced. This is consistent with the changes in the
pressure distribution at different openings in Fig. 6. In addi-
tion, the velocity of the hydrogen flow near the orifice in-
creases, and the velocity near the inlet section is smaller, so
the pressure here shows a trend of slowly rising.
Velocity analysis of high-pressure hydrogen flow
Fig. 9 is the velocity distribution of the middle section under
different opening. The results show that when high-pressure
hydrogen flow out of the valve pipe inlet through the valve
spool, the speed of the hydrogen gradually increases, and the
maximum speed appears on the side of the valve spool near
the outlet pipe and the junction of the outlet pipeline. This is
because the flow area of the two places changes sharply, and
the pressure decreases sharply with a large gradient, which
causes the speed to reach the maximum here. This large
speed impact will cause the valve spool to be affected. Great
scouring effect, especially when the hydrogen contains some
impurities, will greatly increase the risk of damage to the
valve spool and the pipeline connection. Similar laws can be
found in the study of Ariyadi et al. They observed that
hydrogen gas also produces a high-speed zone at the throt-
tling port of the solenoid valve spool, with a maximum speed
of 1500 m/s, and causes severe turbulence and noise. So
reducing the valve maximum speed at the spool is of great
significance to the performance improvement of the valve. As
the valve opens, the position where the maximum speed ap-
pears does not change, but the value gradually decreases,
especially when the speed at the spool decreases more obvi-
ously. This is because the flow area at the spool increases after
the opening increases. And the change is no longer as drastic
as when the opening is small, so the speed also tends to be
stable.
The streamline diagram of the valve flow is also shown in
Fig. 9. Since the hydrogen flow enters the valve body, the flow
direction becomes longitudinal, so a vortex will be formed in
the conical pipeline at the lower part of the valve body. In
addition, due to the effect of the pressure drop, the hydrogen
flows to the outlet side, and after flowing through the gap
between the valve body and the valve spool, only the
hydrogen flow close to the outlet pipe will directly flow out,
and other flows will gather on the upper part of the valve body.
So, the vortex will also be formed in the lower part of the spool
near the inlet side and the top of the spool away from the
outlet pipeline. With the increase of the valve opening, the
vortex in the tapered pipeline gradually decreases, and the
vortex measured at the lower part of the valve spool near the
inlet side and the upper part of the valve spool away from the
outlet pipeline gradually increases. This is caused by the in-
crease in the flow rate of the hydrogen.
From the comparison of different spool shapes, at a small
opening, the arc cone spool shape reduces the velocity
gradient at the spool zone and reduces the high-speed area at
the outlet pipe connection. With the gradual increase of the
11378 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1

Fig. 8 e The pressure drop on the monitoring line of the three different spool shapes of the high-pressure needle valve.

Fig. 9 e Velocity distribution of different valve spool shapes at different opening degrees.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1
opening, the speed distribution of the three shapes no longer
has a significant difference. In addition, the arc cone and flat-
bottomed valve spool shape will make the flow line in the
valve more uniform and the vortex will be smaller. In order to
more accurately analyze the influence of the three valve spool
shapes on the velocity of high-pressure hydrogen, a moni-
toring line is set up along the route of the hydrogen flow, as
shown in Fig. 10. The curve shows the velocity on the moni-
toring line of the three different spool shapes of the high-
pressure needle valve. It can be seen that there are two
peaks in the curve, which correspond to the high-speed area
in the velocity distribution in Fig. 9. Besides, the maximum
speed of the straight cone and flat-bottomed cone spool can
reach 1150 m/s, and the arc cone spool is around 970 m/s.
Therefore, the valve with arc cone spool reduces the
maximum hydrogen velocity in the valve at a small opening,
and reduces the vortex at each opening degree, which is more
conducive to the long-term stable operation of the valve spool.
Turbulence analysis of high-pressure hydrogen flow
A better understanding of the turbulent flow inside the high-
pressure hydrogen needle valve can provide more references
for the structural optimization of the needle valve. As
mentioned above, it can be seen from Fig. 9 that there is al-
ways a high velocity and a high degree of turbulence near the
spool and at the outlet line connections. The turbulent kinetic
energy K is a physical quantity that characterizes the severity
of turbulence. The larger its value is, the larger the length and
time scale of turbulent pulsation will be. Likewise, a greater
degree of turbulence means a greater degree of energy con-
sumption. Fig. 11 shows the maximum difference of turbulent
kinetic energy in the valve under different opening degrees of
high-pressure hydrogen needle valves with different valve
spool structures. It can be seen that the turbulence variation
laws of the three structures under different opening degrees
are roughly similar, and they all decrease first and then in-
crease with the increase of the opening degree. Below 60%
opening, the throttling effect of the spool orifice leads to
Fig. 10 e The velocity on the monitoring line of the high-
pressure needle valve with three different spool shapes.
11379
sudden changes in speed and pressure, and the turbulent flow
here is also the most severe. The hydrogen flow can flow more
smoothly through the orifice and the turbulence is reduced.
When the opening is greater than 60%, the flow area is large
enough, and the throttling effect is no longer obvious, so the
turbulence degree at the valve spool decreases. However, the
high-velocity area where the outlet line connects to the valve
body still exists, so the most turbulent places are also shifted
here. And because the flow area at the valve spool is already
larger than the area at the outlet pipeline, the degree of tur-
bulence here is more severe than when the opening degree is
small, so the turbulent kinetic energy in the valve above 60%
opening is on the rise. From the influence of the valve spool
structure, the maximum difference of the turbulent kinetic
energy of the high-pressure hydrogen needle valve with a
straight cone and a flat-bottomed cone spool is smaller. In
order to better understand the influence of different valve
spool structures on the turbulence, the turbulent flow distri-
bution in the valve of the three spool structures is analyzed
below.
Fig. 12 shows the turbulence intensity on the internal
monitoring line of the high-pressure hydrogen needle valve
with three spool structures at 5% opening (the monitoring line
setting is consistent with the speed monitoring line, Fig. 10). It
can be seen that the turbulent flow changes in the needle
valves with three spool structures are similar. The inlet
pipeline section from x ¼ 4 mm to x ¼ 1mm is very small, the
turbulent flow is not severe, and it basically flows into the
valve in the form of laminar flow. After that, it increases
rapidly around x ¼ 1.6 mm, resulting in the first wave peak.
At this time, the hydrogen flows through the valve spool, and
due to the throttling effect, the hydrogen forms a severe tur-
bulent flow here, resulting in a rapid increase in the turbu-
lence intensity. As the hydrogen moves away from the orifice,
the turbulence intensity also decreases slowly, which is
consistent with the curve from x ¼ 2mm to x ¼ 3mm in the
figure. The second peak appears at x ¼ 3mm. This is because
the hydrogen flows through the connection between the valve
body and the outlet pipeline, and the flow area suddenly
Fig. 11 e Turbulence parameter maximum difference with
different spool shapes.
11380 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1

hydrogen gas model. The model is verified to be valuable by

comparing with previous results. With this model, the flow
characteristic of the high-pressure hydrogen needle valve was
studied, and the effect of the spool shapes on the performance
of the needle valve was investigated. The main conclusions of
this study are:

(1) The mass flow rate of the needle valve in high-pressure

hydrogen system increases as a logarithmic function
with the increase of the opening degree, and it reaches
the maximum at 60% opening. The mass flow rate of the
valve with the arc cone spool is about 8% larger than
that of the other two structures below 60% opening, and
the maximum mass flow rate is 2% larger than the other
two structures.
(2) The pressure in the needle valve gradually decreases
from the inlet to the outlet. Significant pressure sudden
change occurs at the spool position, and this non-
Fig. 12 e Turbulence parameters on the monitoring line of uniformity decreases with the increase of the valve
the high-pressure needle valve with three spool shapes. opening. The valve with arc cone spool has a smaller
pressure gradient at the valve spool. At a large opening,
the pressure distribution of the three shapes is not
expands. In addition, the eddy current produced by the impact
much different, but the valve with arc cone spool and
of the hydrogen flow on the top of the valve body makes the
straight cone spool has better pressure uniformity
hydrogen flow turbulent again and the turbulence intensity
compared with the flat-bottom shape.
increases. After that, the turbulence intensity also increased
(3) The velocity of the high-pressure hydrogen flow in the
slightly in the section from x ¼ 3mm to x ¼ 4mm. This is
needle valve first increased and then decreased, and a
because the speed increased after entering the pipeline, cor-
high-speed area and a strong turbulent flow area
responding to the high-speed area in the outlet pipeline in
appeared at the connection between the valve spool and
Fig. 9, and the high-speed hydrogen flow kept hitting the tube,
the outlet pipeline. The velocity gradient at the arc cone
resulting in disordered flow and increased turbulence in-
valve spool decreases, the high-speed area at the outlet
tensity. Finally, the hydrogen flow flows out along the pipe-
pipe connection decreases, and the vortex inside the
line. As the distance from the valve body increases, the
pipe decreases. The turbulent flow intensity inside the
turbulent flow intensity gradually decreases until it flows out
valve with the flat-bottomed cone spool is generally
of the pipeline.
lower than the other two structures.
The influence of the shape of the valve spool is mainly re-
flected in the throttling element and the outlet pipeline part. It
Since the valve spool shape has a significant influence on
can be seen that the turbulence intensity inside the needle valve
the high-pressure hydrogen gas flow, the results of this paper
with the flat-bottom cone valve spool is generally lower than
can provide a guidance for the design and application of
that of the other two structures, especially at the two peaks.
needle valves in hydrogen refueling stations.
This is because the flat-bottomed structure acts as a buffer
when the high-pressure hydrogen flows through the valve
spool, and as previously analyzed, the flat-bottomed valve spool
Declaration of competing interest
improves the eddy current in the valve body, so the turbulent
flow intensity at the throttling port and the connection of the
The authors declare that they have no known competing
outlet pipeline are reduced compared to other structures.
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
Another interesting finding is that the second peak of the high-
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
pressure needle valve with the arc cone spool is very low and
located closer to the valve body. This is because the arc cone
valve spool reduces the speed at the pipe connection, and the
eddy current at the upper part of the valve body disappears, so Acknowledgments
the turbulent flow at the outlet pipe is also small.
This project was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 51976067), National Key
Conclusion R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFB1505300), and
Foshan Xianhu Laboratory of the Advanced Energy
In this article, a CFD model of the high-pressure hydrogen Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory (Grant No.
needle valve is constructed combined with the NIST real XHD2020-004).
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 8 ( 2 0 2 3 ) 1 1 3 7 0 e1 1 3 8 1 11381

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