What is a Control Valve ?

“Control valve is a device, other than a common, hand actuated ON-OFF valve or self
actuated check valve, that directly manipulates the flow of one or more fluid process
streams”

Classification

Control Valves
Linear Rotary Axial
Globe Angle Ball Eccentric Butterfly
Major Installation at RIL, Hazira
Fisher Virgo
Valtek Hytork
Masoneilan El-O-Matic
Neles Jamesbury Hindle
Bettis-Cipeg
Keystone
Globe Valve Nomenclature
Bonnet Assembly Diaphragm Diaphragm plate Bottom Flange
Direct Actuator Seat Load Cage Cylinder
Seat Ring Spring Adjuster Trim Trim Soft Seated
Valve body Valve Plug
Packing
Packing is required to contain the fluid within the valve, preventing from leaking trough the
clearances between the bonnet and the stem. It is very important to select packing compatible
with the operation conditions, pressure, temperature, chemical compatibility are some of the
considerations to look at. There are several material and design combinations to suit a specific
applications. The standard type packing is contain by two or more packing washers. This design
has the disadvantages that with the continuous valve modulation, the packing will not maintain
its sealing capability due to wear.
Most control valves use packing boxes with the packing retained and adjusted by a flange and stud
bolts. Different packing material used are:
PTFE V ring:
Plastic material with inherent ability to minimize friction
Moulded in V shaped rings
Resistant to most known chemicals except molten alkalies
Requires smooth stem finish
Recommended temperature limits –40 to 232 deg C
Not suitable for nuclear service
• Laminated and Filament Graphite:
• Suitable for High temperature & nuclear service
• Provide leak free operation and long service life but produces high stem friction & resultant
hysteresis.
• Impervious to most hard to handle fluids and radiation
• Suitable temperature range : Cryogenic to 649 deg C
Ball Valve Nomenclature
Ball Full Ball Segmented Ball V notch Disk dynamically designed
Disk Eccentric Plug Eccentric Bearings
Seal Ring Shaft Seal Trunnion Mounting

Control Valve Terminology

• Capacity:
Rate of flow through the control valve under stated conditions
• Dead band:
Range in which input to the control valve does not cause any change in output
Friction:
A force that tend to oppose the relative motion between 2 surfaces
Hysteresis:
The maximum difference in output value for a single input value during a calibration value
Packing:
A part of valve assembly used to seal against leakage around the valve disk or stem
Sizing:
A systematic procedure designed to ensure the correct valve capacity for a set of specified process
conditions.
Valve Coefficient
Valve coefficient (Cv) is the number of US Gallons of water (SG = 1) that
pass through the fully open valve when the pressure drop
(P = P1 – P2) is 1 PSID, in one minute.
Inherent Characteristic

Relationship between the flow coefficient and the disk travel as it is moved from
the closed position to rated travel with constant pressure drop across the valve

Plot of % Cv versus % of flow, which allows

60
% Maximum Flow (Cv)
to find the percentage of flow in function of Quick
the valve opening for different valves sizes.
Opening
If the characteristic curve and the maximum

40
Cv are known, then any intermediate lift vs.
flow can be found.

100
C
The three most common valve Line

20
characteristics are: Quick opening, linear, ar Li v
equal %
ft

80
If pressure drop across the valve is Equal
constant, the inherent characteristic will

0
remain constant. However this is not the %
case, as the valve closes the drop 0 20 40 60 80 100
increases. The Cv decreases as the
valve closes, but pressure drop % Rated Travel (Lift)
increases, the result is that flow does
not falls as fast as the Cv, therefore the
inherent characteristic differs form the
operating characteristic.
 Operating characteristics
As the valve closes, the total losses through the valve become a higher fraction of the total
resistance of the system. Pressure drop across the valve varies from a minimum when fully
open to a maximum when fully closed. A measurement of this deviation is:

= Pv (Max Flow) / Pv (Min Flow)

The higher  the higher the deviation of the operating characteristic from the inherent
characteristic (a quick opening can deviate to an equal % characteristic), this deviation will
cause poor flow control, creating process instability. It is important to point out that wrongfully
selected or faulty instrumentation can not be corrected by changing controller tuning
parameters or advance control techniques.

Valve Inherent Charateristics

• Equal % Characteristics: An inherent flow charactristics, for equal increments of rated travel, will
ideally give equal percentage changes of flow co-efficient Cv
• Quick Opening: An inherent flow charactristics for which maximum flow is achieved by minimal
closure member travel
• Linear: An inherent flow charactristics that can be represented by straight line on a plot of flow
Coefficient vs rated travel
• Quick Opening Linear Equal %

Selection based on process dynamics

The inherent flow characteristic is define by the type of disk and seat used
 Selection based on process dynamics

Quick
Equal %
Opening

Linear
Gain is calculated as:
Kvalve = Cv / Lift

Quick opening is good for processes whose gain increases with the variable used to control it.
Linear gain is not dependent of lift, good for plants whose gain is independent of the operating
point
Equal % is good for a process whose gain decreases as load increases

Application Best Inherent

Characteristic
Liquid process Equal %
Gas process, small volume, less than10ft of pipe between control valve and Equal %
load valve
Gas process, large volume (process has receiver, distribution system or Linear
transmission line exceeding 100 ft of nominal pipe volume), decreasing P
with increasing load, P at maximum load > 20% of minimum load P
Gas process, large volume, decreasing P with increasing load, P at Linear
maximum load <20% of minimum load P
Cavitation
Cavitation is caused by the change of phase of the liquid. It occurs in the high velocity zone of
the valve. Once the bubbles passed to the lower velocity zone they will implode causing micro
jets that will chew away the internals of the valve. A cavitating valve will be destroy in very short
time.
Cavitation can be eliminated by using specially design trims, installing a fixed orifice plate
downstream the valve. Cavitation is source of noise, instability, lost of shutoff capability…

ex.
Liquid = Water
Total pressure drop = 90PSID

Flashing
Flashing occurs when the outlet pressure is lower than the vapor pressure. Flashing occurs
specially when high pressure drops and temperatures are present. Flashing is source of noise,
vibration, wear. The variables that define flashing are not directly controlled by the valve.

Velocity
A good valve selection must include a review of the velocity in the system, either in pipes
as well as within the valve. High velocities will cause one or more of the following:

1. High noise levels

2. Excessive vibration and trim wear
3. Valve body erosion
Valve Coefficient
It is important to point out that Cv varies from one manufacturer to another, due to the type of trim
used for a given application.

Choked Flow
Increasing the pressure drop will increase the flow rate through the valve, however a point will
be reached where the P will not increase the flow rate, this point is described as Choke Flow,
flow is not proportional to the square root of P. This is normally associated to gas-vapor flow;
in liquids will mean that the liquid is acting more like a gas vapor than a liquid.

Noise
“Noise is becoming the third biggest menace to the human environment after water and air
pollution” Noise is a by-product of energy production, and due to the increasing demand for
energy there will be an increase in noise. Thus, The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
has enforced limits to noise exposure as follows:
Aerodynamic Noise
It is a direct result of the transformation of the flow energy into acoustic energy when the flow is
passing through the valve.

Hydrodynamic Noise
Liquid noise, cavitation noise and flashing noise is generated by the flow passing through the
valve. The most serious of the three is cavitation noise which will indicate that damage is
occurring in the valve or piping.
Sizing of Control Valves Using Software
Several manufactures have designed software to aid in the selection of process control valves. Even
though the use of this tools is very simple, a thorough understanding of the theoretical bases is very
important if one is to be able to take advantage of the powerful capabilities of control valve software
sizing.
A set of different sizing programs can be downloaded from different manufacturers web sites for
sizing of control valves, desuperheaters and noise prediction.

General steps for the use of this software are:

1. Contact information
2. Tag and job number
3. Conditions of operation (pressure, temperature flow rate, type of fluid) in the chosen
units
4. Inlet, outlet pipe size and thickness
5. Define if use of reducers is required
6. Type of valve, isolation, trim and characterization required
7. Maximum noise level
Body Designs :
(a) Globe
Single port
Double port
Split body
Three way
( b )Angle
Applicable to services requiring high pressure drops.
90 Deg bent.
Always single ported.
( c )Needle
Suitable for small flow & high rangeability.
Bar stock body design.
(d) Ball Valve
Employs a cage to carry a solid ball into the mouth of the body opening.
Provides tight shut off.
Wide rangeability.
(e)Butterfly Valve
It consists of a shaft supported vane or disc capable of rotating within a cylindrical body.
For low pressure drops.
Do not provide tight shut off.
Economical for larger size due to simple design & high capacity.