Vortex Valves—Effective Flow Regulation for Economical Stormwater Management

Vortex valves are simply constructed, non-moving part devices that utilise the pressure loss across a vortex to regulate flowrates. This presents opportunities including; they can have clearances of up to five-times those of orifice plates designed for the same duty point, reducing the likelihood of blockage; at low heads they do not over-restrict flows when not required, ensuring efficient utilisation of upstream storage. Vortex valves have been successfully applied in a number of world regions with design flowrates from a few litres per second to several cumecs and outlet diameters from 75mm (3 inches) to 2m (6.6 feet). This paper provides an overview of vortex valve technology, along with case examples of their application, including use as inlet controls on combined sewer systems, use on new-build projects as a means of economising on storage requirements, and use on large scale flood-alleviation dams to optimise upstream flood-basin utilisation. In all cases this has yielded practical and economic benefits over conventional solutions.