valve

valve, device for controlling the flow of fluids (liquids and gases). Valves vary in construction and size depending upon their function. Some are classified according to their method of operation or design, e.g., butterfly, gate, globe, lift, needle, piston, and slide valves. Valves are also named for the functions they perform, e.g., check valve (which permits flow in one direction only) and cutoff, bypass, exhaust, intake, safety (see safety valve), and throttle valves. Valves are operated automatically, by hand, or by special mechanism. Valves are employed in the carburetor, diesel engine, internal-combustion engine, pump, and steam engine. In Great Britain an electron tube may be referred to as a valve. In anatomy and physiology the term valve includes the flaps of tissue that help to control the direction of the flow of blood in the heart.

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valve

A globe valve controls the flow of a fluid through a pipe, inlet, or outlet. To stop the flow …

(credit: © Merriam-Webster Inc.)

In mechanical engineering, a device for controlling the flow of fluids (liquids, gases, slurries) in a pipe or other enclosure. It exerts control by means of a movable element that opens, shuts, or partially blocks an opening in a passageway. Valves are of seven main types: globe, gate, needle, plug (cock), butterfly, poppet, and spool. Some valves operate automatically; check (or nonreturn) valves, for example, are self-acting valves that permit flow in only one direction. Safety valves open at a predetermined pressure; the movable element usually has a weighted lever or a spring strong enough to hold the valve closed until a particular pressure is reached.

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valve

1. any device that shuts off, starts, regulates, or controls the flow of a fluid

2. Anatomy a flaplike structure in a hollow organ, such as the heart, that controls the one-way passage of fluid through that organ

3. Electronics an evacuated electron tube containing a cathode, anode, and, usually, one or more additional control electrodes. When a positive potential is applied to the anode, electrons emitted from the cathode are attracted to the anode, constituting a flow of current which can be controlled by a voltage applied to the grid to produce amplification, oscillation, etc.

4. Zoology any of the separable pieces that make up the shell of a mollusc

5. Music a device on some brass instruments by which the effective length of the tube may be varied to enable a chromatic scale to be produced

6. Botany

a. any of the several parts that make up a dry dehiscent fruit, esp a capsule

b. either of the two halves of a diatom cell wall

7. Archaic a leaf of a double door or of a folding door

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Valve

A flow-control device. Valves are used to regulate the flow of fluids in piping systems and machinery. In machinery the flow phenomenon is frequently of a pulsating or intermittent character and the valve, with its associated gear, contributes a timing feature.

The valves commonly used in piping systems are gate valves (Fig. 1), usually operated closed or wide open and seldom used for throttling; globe valves, frequently fitted with a renewable disk and adaptable to throttling operations; check valves, for automatically limiting flow in a piping system to a single direction; and plug cocks, for operation in the open or closed position by turning the plug through 90° and with a shearing action to clear foreign matter from the seat. Safety and relief valves are automatic protective devices for the relief of excess pressure. See Safety valve

For hydraulic turbines and hydroelectric systems, valves and gates control water flow for (1) regulation of power output at sustained efficiency and with minimum wastage of water, and (2) safety under the inertial flow conditions of large masses of water.

To control the kinematics of the cycle, steam-engine valves range from simple D-slide and piston valves to multiported types. Many types of reversing gear have been perfected which use the same slide valve or piston valve for both forward and backward rotation of an engine, as in railroad and marine service. See Steam engine

Poppet valves are used almost exclusively in internal combustion reciprocating engines because of the demands for tightness with high operating pressures and temperatures (Fig. 2). Two-cycle engines utilize ports, alternately covered and uncovered by the main piston, for inlet or exhaust. See Cam mechanism, Internal combustion engine, Valve train

In compressors, valves are usually automatic, operating by pressure difference on the two sides of a movable, springloaded member and without any mechanical linkage to the moving parts of the compressor mechanism. Like those for compressors, pump valves are usually of the automatic type operating by pressure difference.

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(electronics)

valve - UK term for a vacuum tube.