Abstract
A 3-way valve has been applied to a distributor in a hot-water heating system and the performance of the system was evaluated in view of the variations of pressure drop and flow rate. The 3-way valve has been designed to bypass overplus hot-water when a control valve is closed. Note that the flow goes through heating pipeline in normal operation. In the present study, the measured pressure drops in each part of the flow paths show that the contribution to the total pressure drop is in the order of the supply header with control valves, piping system of each room and return header of the distributor, even though the amount of it is different according to the flow paths. As a result of performance test by sequential closing of the control valves, the variations of pressure drop and flow rate in the distributor with 3-way valves is much lower than those with previous 2-way valves, which prevent noises induced by pressure fluctuations.
