Flow control valve

A flow control valve, comprising:

• an actuator;
• and
• a housing with a control element having an inlet nozzle and an outlet nozzle, each nozzle defining a through opening of a same inner diameter (D), and a central part disposed coaxially between the nozzles, the central part having an inner cylindrical surface and defining a control zone,
• wherein a plurality of fixed throttling elements are formed as projections on the inner cylindrical surface of the central part, each fixed throttling element having, in cross-section, a shape of a triangular tooth terminating in a wedge with two planar wedge faces,
• wherein a plurality of movable throttling elements are located between the fixed throttling elements, each movable throttling element having, in cross-section, the shape of a triangular tooth terminating in a wedge with two planar wedge faces, and each movable throttling element being constrained for radial, translational motion toward and away from a longitudinal axis of the control element while sliding in continuous face-to-face contact along side faces of adjacent fixed throttling elements,
• wherein, in an open position, a through opening of the control zone is bounded by the wedge faces of the throttling elements and has a cross-sectional shape of a symmetrical multiprong star having an even number of prongs, and the inner diameter (D1) of the central part exceeds D by an amount selected such that, along substantially the entire axial length of the control zone in the open position, an area of the through opening, accounting for cross-sectional area occupied by the throttling elements, deviates by no more than ±2% from a cross-sectional flow area of either nozzle,
• wherein each throttling element has a wedge vertex angle of 360/n degrees, n being the number of the movable throttling elements, and
• wherein, in a closed position, wedge vertices of the movable throttling elements meet at the longitudinal axis and side faces of the movable throttling elements are in surface contact with the wedge faces of the fixed throttling elements to block the through opening within the control zone.