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Final Control Elements

Control Valves

Control Valves
Control valves are most common final control elements (FCE). Other FCE are Motors, Cylinders etc. Control valve works on principle of flow restriction at the command of an automated signal from Controller or logic device such as a PLC. Some control valve designs are intended for discrete (on/off) control of fluid flow. While others are designed to throttle fluid flow somewhere between fully open and fully closed positions.

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A typical Example

Sliding-stem valves
A sliding-stem valve body is one that actuates with a linear motion. Some examples of slidingstem valve body designs are shown here:

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Most sliding-stem control valves are direct acting. Which means the valve opens up wider as the stem is drawn out of the body. Conversely, a direct-acting valve shuts off (closes) when the stem is pushed into the body. Of course, a reverse-acting valve body would behave just the opposite.

Globe valves
Globe valves restrict the flow of fluid by altering the distance between a movable plug and a stationary seat. As you can see from these photographs, the valve plug is guided by the stem so it always lines up with the centerline of the seat. For this reason, this particular style of globe valve is called a stem-guided globe valve.

Fully Closed

In between

Fully Open

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Needle Valve
A variation on the stem-guided globe valve is the needle valve. Here the plug is extremely small in diameter and usually fits well into the seat hole rather than merely sitting on top of it. Needle valves are very common as manually-actuated valves used to control low flow rates of air or oil. A set of three photographs shows a needle valve in the fully-closed, mid-open, and fully-open positions.

Fully Closed

In between

Fully Open

Port-Guided Valve
Yet another variation on the globe valve is the port-guided valve, where the plug has an unusual shape that projects into the seat. Thus, the seat ring acts as a guide for the plug. This keep the centerlines of the plug and seat always aligned, minimizing guiding stresses placed on the stem. This means that the stem may be made smaller in diameter than if the valve trim were stem-guided, minimizing sliding friction and improving control behavior.

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Double-Ported Globe Valves

Some globe valves use a pair of plugs on the same stem and a matching pair of seats to throttle fluid flow. These are called doubleported globe valves. The purpose of a doubleported globe valve is to minimize the force applied to the stem by process fluid pressure across the plugs.

The following photograph shows a disassembled double-ported globe valve, with the double plug.

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Disadvantage of Double Ported Valve

While double-ported globe valves has the advantage of easier actuation compared to single-ported valves. But, they also suffer from a distinct disadvantage: the near impossibility of tight shut-off. With two plugs needing to come to simultaneous rest on two seats to achieve a fluid tight Seal. This needs for very accurate machining of plug and seat. Valve is prepared in a shop for the best shut-off possible, but it may not completely shut off when installed due to dimensional changes caused by process fluid heating or cooling the valve stem and body. This is especially problematic when the stem is made of a different material than the body. Globe valve stems are commonly manufactured from stainless steel , while body is of cast of iron, Cold-formed stainless steel. They have a different coefficient of thermal expansion than hot-cast iron.

Cage-guided globe valves

A more modern version of the globe valve design uses a pistonshaped plug inside a surrounding cage with ports cast or machined into it. These cage-guided globe valves throttle flow by uncovering more or less of the port area in the surrounding cage as the plug moves up and down. The cage also serves to guide the plug so the stem need not be subjected to lateral forces as in a stem-guided valve design.

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Advantage of Cage guided Design

An advantage of the cage-guided design is that the valves flow characteristics may be easily altered just by replacing the cage with another having different size or shape of holes. Many different cage styles are available for certain plug (piston) sizes, which means the plug need not be replaced while changing the cage. This is more convenient than the plug change necessary for changing characteristics.

Balanced & Unbalanced Plug

Cage-guided globe valves are available with both balanced and unbalanced plugs. A balanced plug has one or more ports drilled from top to bottom, allowing fluid pressure to equalize on both sides of the plug. This helps minimize the forces acting on the plug which must be overcome by the actuator.

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Gate Valve
Gate valves work by inserting a dam (gate) into the path of the flow to restrict it, in a manner similar to the action of a sliding door. Gate valves are more often used for on/off control than for throttling.

Fully Closed

In between

Fully Open

Diaphragm Valves
Diaphragm valves use a flexible sheet pressed close to the edge of a solid dam to narrow the flow path for fluid. These valves are well suited for flows containing solid particulate matter such as slurries, Although precise throttling may be difficult to achieve due to the elasticity of the diaphragm.

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Rotary-stem valves
A different strategy for controlling the flow of fluid is to insert a rotary element into the flow path. Rotary valves rely on the rotation of a shaft . Advantage is a virtually obstruction less path for fluid when the valve is wide-open.

Ball valves
A spherical ball with a passageway cut through the center rotates to allow fluid more or less access to the passageway. When the passageway is parallel to the direction of fluid motion, the valve is wide open. When the passageway is perpendicular to the direction of fluid motion, the valve is fully shut (closed).

Fully Closed

In between

Fully Open

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Butterfly valves
The butterfly element is a disk that rotates perpendicular to the path of fluid flow. When parallel to the axis of flow, the disk presents minimal obstruction. When perpendicular to the axis, the disk completely blocks any flow. Fluid-tight shutoff is difficult to obtain in the classic butterfly design unless the seating area is lined with a soft (elastic) material.

Valve packing
All stem-actuated control valves require some form of seal allowing motion of the stem from some external device (an actuator ). The general term for this sealing mechanism is packing. This mechanical feature is not unlike the stuffing box used to seal seawater from entering a boat or ship at the point where the propeller shaft penetrates the hull:

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Packing in a sliding-stem valve fits in a section of the valve body called the bonnet.

The packing material is in the form of concentric rings, stacked on the valve stem like washers on a bolt. Two nuts threaded onto studs maintain proper force on the packing rings. Care must be taken not to over-tighten these nuts and over-compress the packing material, or else the packing will create excessive friction on the valve stem. This friction will create undue wear on the stem and packing, increasing the likelihood of future packing leakage.

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A closer look at the bonnet shows a multitude of components working together to form a low friction, pressure-tight seal for the moving valve stem

Photographs shows the actual valve packing assembly removed from the bonnet and reassembled on the valve stem (right) reveal the structure of the packing and associated components
Packing

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Valve seat leakage

In many process applications, it is important that the control valve be able to completely stop fluid flow when placed in the closed position. Although this may seem to be a fundamental requirement of any valve, it is not necessarily so. Many control valves spend most of their operating lives in a partially-open state. Common installation of manual block valves upstream and downstream of a control valve, there is usually a way to secure zero flow through a pipe even if a control valve is incapable of tight shut-off. For some control valve applications, however, tight shut-off is a mandatory requirement. For this reason we have several classifications for control valves, rating them in their ability to fully shut off. Seat leakage tolerances are given roman numeral designations, as shown in table.

The bubble test used for Class VI seat leakage is based on the leakage rate of air or nitrogen gas past the closed valve seat as measured by counting the rate of gas bubbles escaping a bubble tube submerged under water. For a 6 inch valve, this maximum bubble rate is 27 bubbles per minute.

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Control valve actuators

The purpose of a control valve actuator is to provide the motive force to operate a valve mechanism. Both sliding-stem and rotary control valves enjoy the same selection of actuators pneumatic, hydraulic, electric motor, and hand (manual).

Valve Actuation Technologies

Pneumatic Electric Hydraulic Servo Electric

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Pneumatic actuators
Pneumatic actuators use air pressure pushing against either a flexible diaphragm or a piston to move a valve mechanism. The following photograph shows a cutaway control valve, with a pneumatic diaphragm actuator mounted above the valve body. You can see the large coil spring providing default positioning of the valve . Air pressure applied to the bottom side of the diaphragm lifts the sliding stem of the valve in the upward direction, against the springs force which tries to push the stem down.

The air pressure required to motivate a pneumatic actuator may come directly from the output of a pneumatic process controller, or from a signal transducer (or converter ) translating an electrical signal into an air pressure signal. Such transducers are commonly known as I/P or I to P. Converters, since they typically translate an electric current signal (I) of 4 to 20 mA DC into an air pressure signal (P) of 3 to 15 PSI. The following photographs show I/P transducers of different make and model.

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Some pneumatic valve actuators are equipped with hand jacks which are used to manually position the valve in the event of air pressure failure.

Pneumatic actuators may be either diaphragms or a pistons. Piston actuators have longer stroke than diaphragm actuators. And are able to operate at greater air pressures. Perhaps the greatest disadvantage of piston actuators as applied to control valves is friction between the sealing ring and the cylinder wall. This is not a problem for on/off control valves, but it can be a significant problem for throttling valves where precise positioning is desired. Diaphragm actuators do not have same friction as piston actuators because the elastic diaphragm.

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A double-piston pneumatic actuator appears in the next photograph, providing the mechanical force needed to turn an on/off butterfly valve.

Hydraulic actuators
Hydraulic actuators use liquid pressure rather than gas pressure to move the valve mechanism. Nearly all hydraulic actuator designs use a piston rather than a diaphragm. The lubricating nature of hydraulic oil helps to overcome the characteristic friction of piston-type actuators. Given the high pressure ratings of most hydraulic pistons, it is possible to generate tremendous actuating forces with a hydraulic actuator, even if the piston area is modest. For example, an hydraulic pressure of 2,000 PSI applied to one side of a 3 inch diameter piston will generate a linear thrust of over 14,000 pounds (7 tons).

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Hydraulic actuator
Very Stiff Fast High forces Very energy inefficient Hazardous fluids Tend to leak
Environmental problem

Difficult to maintain

Electric actuators
Electric motors have long been used to actuate large valves, either in on/off mode or in throttling services. Advances in motor design and motor control circuitry has brought motoroperated valve (MOV) technology to the point where it regularly competes with actuator technologies such as pneumatic.

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Electric Actuator
Uses physical limit switches to indicate valve closure/position Position sensor
potentiometer

Electric Actuator
Rotary to linear conversion
Worm Gears Ball screws Acme screws

Not robust for high duty cycles

Gear or ballscrew wear Motor burn-out

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Rotary to Linear Converter

Ball Screw Technology Short service life Low shock resistance Nearly impossible to clean and regrease Rotational speeds limited to ~ 1,000 rpm Noisy Tricky disassembly

Rotary to Linear Converter

Roller screw Technology Up to 15x the travel life of a (equivalent size) ball screw High Shock Resistance Easy disassembly Easy cleaning and re-greasing Rotational speeds up to 6,000 rpm Design can be inverted Quiet operation

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Why Longer Travel Life?

Ball Screw
Roller Screws have 15 times more contact area
in the

same space

Roller Screw
Load Points ( )

Why More Efficient?

Roller Screw
Roller screw rollers are separated by journals.

Ball Screw
Adjacent balls within a ball screw have conflicting friction leading to heating and wear.

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Why Higher Rotation Speeds?

Roller Screws
There is no loading and unloading of balls and no sharp turns of ball return tubes. Therefore, planetary roller screws operate efficiently up to 6,000 rpm.

Ball Screws
Sharp turns of ball returns cause vibration and noise.

Servo Motor vs Induction Motor

Small size
High output relative to size and weight
AC induction motor 7.6in Brushless servo motor 3.5in

Closed loop feedback

Resolver, Encoder

High efficiency (90%) All Voltages

24VDC to 460VAC

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Servo Motor vs Induction Motor

High torque to inertia ratios
Rapid acceleration

Reserve power
(2x over continuous)

Cool running
current draw proportional to load

Quiet Vibration free

Valve Failure Mode

What will happen to valve in case of failure of;
Actuator Electrical power/ pneumatic source

It may remain in following positions;

Remain in current position Move to fully closed position Move to fully open position

This Design parameter is known as Valve Failure Mode.

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Fail Safe Design

The desired position of valve depends on the process requirement.
Example: In case of power failure the fail safe design of boiler;
Safety valve should get fully opened to insure pressure release: Fail Open - FO design. Inlet valve for fuel should get fully closed to stop the heating: Fail Close - FC design.

The ultimate target is to have a safe process design even in case of failure of power.

Actuators are equipped with spring to insure desired position of valve in case of failure.

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Control Valve Characterization

For a control valve;

At constant density and a constant pressure drop across the valve, flow rate becomes a direct function of flow coefficient (Cv).

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The resistance of valve depends upon;

Cross-sectional area of that restriction The proportion of fluid kinetic energy dissipated in turbulence.

If a control valve is designed such that the combined effect of these two parameters vary linearly with stem motion, the Cv of the valve will likewise be proportional to stem position. That is to say, the Cv of the control valve will be approximately half its maximum rating with the stem position at 50%.

If such a valve is placed in a laboratory flow test piping system with constant differential pressure and constant fluid density, the relationship of flow rate to stem position will be linear

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However, in real installations the conditions are not ideal due to;
Frictional pressure losses in piping. Changes in supply/demand pressures that vary with flow rate.

A typical control valve sees substantial changes in differential pressure as its controlled flow rate changes.

Generally speaking, the pressure drop available to the control valve will decrease as flow rate increases.

Therefore, the relationship between the actual flow rate and stem position will not be linearly. Instead, it will droop if the valve is further opened. This drooping graph is called the valves Installed Characteristic.

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Explanation
A constant pressure drop of 20 psi across our control valve at all times. Let us assume that Cv=18 at maximum flow capacity. This means the valves Cv will be;
18 at 100% open 13.5 at 75% open 9 at 50% open 4.5 at 25% open 0 at fully closed (0% open).
20 psi

The set of characteristic curves to determine how this valve will respond in any installation by superimposing another curve on the graph called a load line. The load line describes the pressure drop available to the valve at different flow rates. Since we know our hypothetical dam applies a constant 20 PSI across the control valve for all flow conditions. The load line for the dam will be a vertical line at 20 psi.

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By noting the points of intersection between the valves characteristic curves and the load line. We may determine the flow rates from the dam at those stem positions. This tells us our control valve will respond linearly.

But what if we alter this situation that the pressure drop across the valve does not remain constant. Suppose the valve is not closely coupled to the dam, but rather receives water through a narrow (restrictive) pipe. And we must plot a new load line describing the pressure available to the valve at different flow rates.

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Now we see a definite nonlinearity in the control valves behavior.

If we plot the valves performance in both scenarios;

close-coupled to the dam (Blue Line). At the end of a restrictive pipe (Red Line).

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The drooping graph shows how the valve responds when it does not receive a constant pressure drop throughout the flow range. This what we mean by installed characteristic versus inherent characteristic (Ideal). Pressure losses due to
fluid friction is just one cause of valve pressure changing with flow.

Other causes exist as well, including

Pump curves and Frictional losses in other system components such as filters and heat exchangers.

Root Cause of the Problem

The root cause of the problem is frictional losses due to;
The piping And Other factors such as filter, pump etc.

A claver solution of this problem is a purposely designed valve that itself causes distortion to linear response of valve in a opposite way to frictional losses. In other words, we design the control valve trim that
Opens up gradually during the initial stem travel Then opens up more rapidly during the final stages of stem travel. With the valve made to open up in a nonlinear fashion inverse to the droop caused by the installed pressure changes, the two non-linearities should cancel each other and yield a more linear response.

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This re-design will give the valve;

a nonlinear characteristic when tested in the laboratory with constant pressure drop. But the installed behavior should be more linear.

Linear, Equal Percentage & Quick Opening

The two most common inherent characteristics are;

linear and Equal percentage.

Linear valve trim exhibits a fairly linear relationship between valve stem travel and flow capacity (Cv), While equal percentage trim is decidedly nonlinear. Linear trim will exhibit consistent responsiveness only with a constant pressure drop. While equal percentage trim is designed to counter-act the droop caused by changing pressure drop. Another common inherent valve characteristic available from manufacturers is quick-opening. Where the valves Cv increases dramatically during the initial stages of opening, later on it increases at a much slower rate for the rest of the travel. Quick-opening valves are often used in pressurerelief applications,

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Plug Design
Different valve characterizations may be achieved by re-shaping the valve trim. For instance, the plug profiles of a single-ported, stem-guided globe valve may be modified to achieve the common quick-opening, linear, and equal-percentage characteristics.

Control valve sizing

Control valves can be compared with resister (R) in electrical circuits.

When a fluid moves turbulently through any restriction, energy is inevitably dissipated in that turbulence. The Energy dissipation is proportional to the kinetic energy of the turbulent motion.

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Energy dissipated by turbulence will be some proportion (k) of the total kinetic energy, so: Energy lost due to turbulence results in loss of fluid pressure. Thus, a control valve throttling a fluid flowstream will have a greater upstream pressure than downstream pressure.

This pressure drop (P1 P2, or P) may be substituted for dissipated energy per unit volume.

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The fluid Resistance depends on;

Energy lost due to turbulence (k) The density of the fluid () And the cross-sectional area (A).

In a control valve density () is constant. In case of fully open valve area (A) is also constant. In a Fully open control valve, the value of;
(A) will maximum (k) will be zero.

In a fully shut control valve,

(A) is zero, creating a condition of infinite resistance to fluid flow. (k) will be maximum.

The Restrictiveness of any valve is expressed in terms of flow it will pass given a certain pressure drop and fluid specific gravity (Gf ). This measure of valve performance is called flow capacity or flow coefficient (Cv). Higher (Cv) value represents a less restrictive valve. Since;

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Cv is defined as the flow rate (cubic meters per hour) of water at a pressure drop of 1 bar. Prediction of correct valve of (Cv) is known as sizing of valve. it is recommended to use valve sizing software provided by control valve manufacturers.

Importance of proper valve sizing

The (Cv) value is a numerical value expressing maximum flow capacity. eg. a control valve with a Cv rating of 45 should flow 45 gallons per minute of water through it with at 1 PSI pressure drop when wide open. The (Cv) value for this same valve will be less than 45 when the valve is not fully open. Cv = 0, when valve is fully shut off. Therefore Cv is variable: not a constant.

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The (Cv) value should be large to allow required flow rate. A valve, too small for an application will not be able to give enough flow rate when needed. Given this fact, it may seem safe to choose a valve sized much larger than what is needed.

Example
It is required to maintain hydrostatic head of 25 ft in the tank. The maximum expected flow rate for this valve is 470 GPM. What should the maximum (Cv) rating be for this valve?

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The 25 foot water column height upstream provides us with the means to calculate inlet pressure.

Manipulating our flow capacity equation to solve for Cv:

This tells us we need a control valve with a (Cv) = 143, to meet the specified (maximum) flow rate. A valve with insufficient (Cv) would not be able to flow the required 470 GPM of water with only 10.8 PSI of pressure drop.

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Does this mean we may safely over-size the valve? Would there be any problem with installing a control valve with a (Cv) value of 300?

Over-sized valves may be problematic. The possibility of too much flow under fullyopen conditions. But also that the process will be difficult to control under low-flow conditions.
Cv= 147 147GPM In between = 88 147GPM Cv = 300 (Over Size)

300GPM

Fully Closed = 0

Fully Closed = 180

Fully Closed = 0

Fully Closed = 180

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