Modeling and Design of the Automatic Pressure Regulating Valve in the Foam Firefighting System

This paper presents a novel design of the automatic pressure balancing valve, used in the in-line balanced pressure (ILBP) proportioner for the foam firefighting system, at a required percentage of solution. Featured in a four-chamber configuration with a double-acting diaphragm actuator, it can automatically maintain the foam concentrate pressure with the pressure in the supply water pipeline, within a precision level of 0.02 MPa (or 1.3%), under the design operating condition. The static characteristics at the equilibrium state have been discussed in terms of poppet displacement with reference to the geometrical dimensions and operating pressures of the valve. The dynamic response of the valve during the startup has been examined through building the mathematical model of the forces on the valve and solving it numerically using MATLAB. The results show that the response time of the valve is always less than 0.01 s, which fully satisfies the stability and hysteresis requirement. The prototype has been tested in the laboratory, which agrees well with the numerical results. It was then successfully put into production, forming the first series of ILBP foam pump firefighting system in China.