The gas proportional valve (GPV) is a pneumatic pressure regulator, and the change in operating pressure will directly affect the opening and closing condition of the spool. In this study, the procedure for opening the spool is studied. The process of regulating the pressure of the GPV is revealed by the dynamical simulation method. The characteristics of displacement, total pressure and velocity of the spool during opening are analyzed. As time increases, it is found that the turbulence in the downstream of GPV becomes more obvious. In the process of spool movement, the influence of different inlet working pressures on spool displacement is analyzed. With a full open time of less than 1.5 × 10^ (−2) s, the spool reaches the stable state of full opening. In addition, the transient process of outlet flow is also studied. The simulated outlet flow is stable at 152 m3/h for the maximum opening. In order to verify the simulation results, the test of valve flow is carried out on the test bench. The results show that these methods can reduce the design difficulty and provide a reference for further optimization and engineering application of GPV. •The dynamic numerical simulation of GPV is carried out by CFD.•The force of the spool opening process is analyzed by mathematical method.•A UDF program is developed to simulate the transient opening process of spool.•The influence of pressure variation on spool opening is analyzed by transient process.•The outlet flow of GPV is analyzed by transient process.