Abstract
The experimental apparatus is designed and installed to measure the disc positions with flow velocity, $V_{open}\;and\;V_{min}$ for 3 inch and 6 inch swing check valves. The minimum flow velocity necessary to just open the disc at a full open position is referred to as $V_{open}\;and\;V_{min}$ is defined as the minimum velocity to fully open the disc and hold it without motion. In the experiments, $V_{min}$ is determined as the minimum flow velocity at which the back stop load begins to increase after the disc is idly opened or the oscillation level of disc is reduced below $1^{\circ}$. The results show that the $V_{min}$ velocities for 3 inch and 6 inch swing check valves are about 15.6% and 4.8% higher than the $V_{open}$ velocities, respectively. Although the experiments were done with the stable uniform flow, additional experiments will be performed to determine the effects of the upstream disturbances.
