SBIR-STTR Award

C-Suite Services, LLC (C-Suite) will produce at least one manufacture-ready, full-scale design for the licensed technology of the Balanced Floating Piston Valve. This design is intended as a “drop-in” replacement for an existing valve used in rocket engine component testing. The operating environment, pressures to 15,000 psi and flow rates of 1,000 lbm/sec of Gaseous Nitrogen, have proved problematic for the existing valve designs. High cost of repairs and limited life has resulted in an increase in cost for testing. C-Suite is the NASA licensee of the valve, which was designed to resolve the issues created by the high pressure, flow, and acoustic vibration environment at NASA Stennis Space Center (SSC) rocket engine test stands.. This innovative design eliminates the valve stem and stem seals, as well as the need for conventional actuators, which are the frequent source of failures and fugitive, often toxic propellant emissions. The innovative valve is called "Floating Piston Valve" (FPV); it does not have any moving parts that are connected to the atmosphere and no adjustments are required. The flow path through the valve is all 100% axisymmetric, meaning that the forces generated by the flow through the valve create only radial forces that cancel, or create axial forces that either cancel or are controllable. The FPV's internal piston is balanced such that the seating force is immune to the pressure drop across the valve greatly improving seat wear and providing much longer, useful life without maintenance and refurbishment interruptions. The FPV is simpler to manufacture (5 parts vs. hundreds of parts for comparable ball valves) and is expected to have far greater utility (600+ duty cycles vs. 20-30 duty cycles for comparable ball valves). Finally, because there are no moving parts connected to the atmosphere, it will eliminate fugitive emissions, many of which are toxic and waste costly propellant chemicals. Potential NASA Applications The Floating Piston Valve (FPV) will replace the large ball valves used to control ultra-high pressure and high-volume flows of propellants and gaseous nitrogen at rocket engine ground test stands. Benefits of the FPV include (a) much longer onstream time, (b) lower total capital costs, (c) less expensive, faster refurbishment turnarounds, and (d) longer life between repairs. The reduced downtime will drastically reduce expensive opportunity cost penalties associated with test delays. Potential Non-NASA Applications The FPV has already proven successful as a superior pilot operated relief valve for a manufacturer of CNG and H2 tube trailers; additional high pressure uses for ultra-high pressure, high-volume propellant flow control for the private spacecraft industry, pressure relief devices for CNG-powered vehicles, remotely operated, reliable supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) pipelines, and certain high-pressure applications in chemical, petrochemical and oil refinery operations.

Contractor has completed all scheduled work and accomplished the Technical Objectives (milestones): (1) Finite Element Analyses (FEA), (2) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analyses, as well as (3) Seal Design and Material Selection. A 4th Technical Objective was added:(4) Geometry Design and Material Selection, as critical to the successful design of a manufacturable valve. Technical Objective Work Plan Key Results FEA optimized design Highly iterative design process modeled with ANSYS Piston design met balance requirements with displacement ?0.002” A-286 stainless steel was selected as the material for the piston CFD flow-path optimization Highly iterative flow-path process modeled with ANSYS Decision to use the Drilled Holes Concept rather than the 3-Hole Strut results in 86.5% of the Cv (700) of the ideal ball valve Seal design and material Collaboration with Saint-Gobain Decision to use a bi-directional, spring-assisted, pressure-energized, polymer fiber-filled Teflon seal Seat geometry and material Collaborative process that included FEA and CFD analyses Decision of 60º and Silicon Aluminum Bronze C64200 material The 12 Tasks of the Work Plan in the SBIR Phase I were completed. NASACustomer requirements were investigated and confirmed; industries and markets were researched and new commercial opportunities identified. The manufacturability of the ultimate valve design was validated with the receipts of two quotes from two pre-qualified machine shops, both of which indicated their willingness and ability to manufacture a FPV prototype. The modifications to the FPV during the SBIR Phase I Feasibility Study have resulted in a safer, cost-effective, far more reliable alternative to conventional ball valves currently used for rocket engine ground testing at Stennis Space Center’s (SSC) E Complex. Potential NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) Contractor believes that the FPV, as modified, will be proven as a “drop in” replacement for the existing ball valves at NASA's rocket propulsion testing grounds. Contractor also believes that the FPV can be miniaturized for cryogenic fluid flow control aboard space craft and storage stations in deep space environments. Potential Non-NASA Applications (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) The following additional commercial opportunities were identified: private space flight; oil and gas processing; upstream and midstream pipeline; hydrocarbon exploration and production; and, aircraft markets. Additionally, Contractor believes that the FPV can be successfully modified as a Pilot-Operated Relief Valve (PORV) and a Pressure Relief Devices (PRD) for many other applications.