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Introduction to Pressure Relief Valve Design Part 3 Sizing Orifices and Piping
2009 November 21 tags: accumulation, car sealed close, car sealed open, choked flow, overpressure, pressure relief valve, relief valves by admin If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or bookmark this site. You might find the answers to another problem down the road. Thanks for visiting! This is the third in a set of articles introducing the basics of pressure relief valve design from a process designers viewpoint. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Orifice Sizes
Once you have all of the scenarios that can cause your relief valve to open (see Part 2), and all the key fluid data for each scenario, you can size the relief valve orifice. This is the size of the opening the fluid passes through within your relief valve. In general, a relief valve vendor will have several standard orifice sizes and you will pick the one that best fits your need. API 520/521 has some equations to determine the minimum orifice size you need, as well as good advice and factors to put into their equations when you dont have information from the valve manufacturer yet. There are many programs and spreadsheets out there to size the orifice, so find out what your office uses. By carefully reading the standard and an example problem or two done by your offices methods, you should find the actual sizing of the relief valve is relatively easy. One key factor that any calculation procedure will have you do is check for choked flow / critical flow. Choked flow is when a fluid is going so fast that it reaches sonic velocity: after that, it cannot go any faster no matter what the downstream pressure is. You should
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know the approximate inlet and outlet pressures of the relief valve, so you can check if you will reach choked flow. If it is choked, then that changes your results. API discusses this and gives different instructions and equations for chocked vs. non-chocked flow. Once you have several orifice sizes calculated, you will select the relief valve orifice size just a bit higher than the maximum area that you calculated. So if you calculate 2.0 square inch for the fire case, 0.675 sq in for the cooling water failure case, and 0.5 sq in for thermal expansion, youd probably take the L orifice which is good for up to 2.853 sq in. After that, you look at a catalog of relief valves and you can see what valve sizes are offered for that relief valve orifice size. For example, a 4 N 6 valve means a 4 inlet flange, 6 outlet flange, and a N sized orifice. I would not expect to find a 1 N 2 valve though, because an N orifice is relatively large and a 1x2 relief valve is somewhat small. API 526 also has tables you can look at showing typical valve sizes for each orifice.
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When designing inlet and outlet piping, the flowrates you use are often NOT just the relief scenario flowrates. Rather, they are the flowrates multiplied by the actual orifice size / the calculated orifice size. This is called the rated flowrate. (Example: I complete calculations for all the relief scenarios, and the largest load is from the fire case. I have a fire case generating 2000 lb/hr, and I calculate I need a 2.000 sq inch orifice using my API rules. But the actual orifice I buy is going to be the closest orifice size I can find that is equal to or greater than the calculated size; probably the closest size I can find is 2.853 sq inches. My calculations told me to buy 2.000 sq inch but I actually bought 2.853 sq inch. Therefore I design all the piping and the flare header as if there were 2000 x 2.853 / 2.000 = 2853 lb/hr at relief. Rotary Valves
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The relief valve is set at 500 psig, so I aim to keep the inlet pressure losses from the vessel/pipe to the relief valve below 500 x 0.03 = 15 psig. I need to design the inlet piping such that 2853 lb/hr will not cause a pressure drop over 15 psi. I must also design the outlet piping to ensure that relief valve outlet pressure shall be less than 500 * 0.10 = 50 psig. If I am discharging to atmosphere (0 psig), that means I can have up to 50 psig pressure drop in my outlet lines. (0 psig pressure + 50 psig line losses = 50 psi, just barely meeting my 10% rule). Because it is a fire case, as discussed in Part 2, the fire could affect several vessels simultaneously. I must check if the main flare headers may be receiving loads from several relief valves at once, because the extra fluid from several valves at once will affect the outlet pressure profile. Lastly, all my other relief scenarios will be checked and scaled the same way, with the flowrates and minimum orifices sizes calculated by API. If a cooling water failure caused 500 lb/hr and required a 0.675 sq inch minimum orifice size, I will have to check my pressure drops against 500 * 2.853 / 0.675 = 2113 lb/hr of the relief fluid generated by a cooling water failure) In some cases, when sizing common flare header lines that serve as a main multiple for several PSVs, it is acceptable to use the normal loads when considering multiple valves relieving at once. (But you would still consider rated flows for any scenarios where a single valve pops). Also, sometimes the normal load is used for non-conventional valves like pilot valves. Check API and the rules of your company. If you are dealing with a lot of PSVs interacting, like say a main flare header in a plant of some kind, its recommended you get a commercial package specializing in these types flare/header designs. They will help you keep track of multiple relief scenarios and deal the complex hydraulics. One last point: recall that you checked for choked flow in the orifice sizing. Choked flow is OK in the valve, but its a bad idea for the piping: it can increase vibrations and stresses on the pipes and the noise can be so loud it breaks safety regulations. To avoid dealing with these complexities, many companies have a rule of thumb like keep relief valve outlet pipe velocity below X% of sonic in all relief scenarios. Where X might be 60-80%. Larger outlet pipes will help you avoid sonic flow. (For a fluid, Sonic velocity (ft/s) = 68.1 x root(k * P/ rho), where k, P (psia), and rho (lb/ft3) are evaluated at the actual fluid conditions. Alternatively, API 520 Part 1, Section 3.3.3.1.3 has a calculation to help you do a quick check whether your outlet line will choke or not).
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Offline valves/maintenance: Normally it is OK to have one valve, or one set of working valves, covering a service. But what about maintenance of the valves, you ask? Well, it is nice if the relief valve inspection and maintenance schedule syncs with the equipment maintenance schedule, then you can take the equipment and the valve(s) offline for service at the same time. If the maintenance schedules do not sync up, then normally a careful procedure can be followed where the relief valve is quickly serviced while the pressure in the vessel is carefully watched and someone is ready to take manual action in the event of a high pressure. Installed spares: In some critical services people like to spend more and have spare of relief valves kept offline. This could be one valve + one spare, or if two relief valves are called for in the design, have three valves with one kept offline. Some companies are willing to spend and make spare relief valves the standard procedure to use in almost all cases it costs more but makes maintenance easier and safer. You can easily pull a valve for maintenance and have the spare perfectly placed to take over. But remember, do not have the offline valve in service (connected and with the isolation valves open) while you have with the other standard valve(s) also connected, because then you risk chattering. 2 valves is not safer than 1, if 1 valve was sized to do the job. Keep the spare valve(s) closed off from the process until you need them Locked open (LO), locked closed (LC), Car sealed open (CSO), and car sealed closed (CSC) valves: You may see gate valves marked LO and LC on the P&ID drawings. These valves can only be opened and closed with a special key, whose use is tightly controlled. The plant will have procedures so that the key has to be signed out, and can only be taken after a formal work plan has been made. Basically, these valves are a real pain for maintenance and operations to use, which prevent someone from casually and accidentally turning these valves. Spare relief valves are a common place to use such valves: you do not want spare valves open to the process UNLESS the main valve is taken offline, and you definitely do not want to accidentally close all the gate valves so that no relief valve is connected to the system. You use LO/LC to put isolation valves around the relief valves, while minimizing the risk that people accidentally open or close them incorrectly. The isolation valves are only turned after a formal work plan has been written and people have thought through the consequences. (If there is only one relief valve, preferred practice may be to have NO isolation valves, or it may be LO/LC valvesit depends on how the valve and system will be maintained). CSO & CSC are car sealed open/closed valves, which are a similar idea but replaces the key with a plastic seal you have to cut open after filling out a plant paperwork procedure. One cannot turn the valves without breaking the seal. Reference. Boilers: They have special rules. Check ASME I or whatever the appropriate standard is for you. Revamp projects: Whenever an existing plant or process is modified it is called a revamp. Most revamps intend to expand the capacity of the existing plant, through a combination of installing new equipment and creatively re-using what is already there. In any modification, the relief valves have to be checked to make sure they can still be used in the new service, and this is no easy task. However, there is a big savings when an existing relief valve can handle the new service, compared to the expense of installing a new valve. Sometimes companies will invest in fancy dynamic simulators and other tools to try to re-use existing relief valves. By sharpening your pencil with these tools and doing very precise scenario calculations, you may find that the design margins and assumptions in the original sizing calculations were so high that the old relief valve can be reused for larger revamp flowrates. This is a big savings! Also, a warning: often in revamps the hardest part can be gathering the data: finding the original datasheets and
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calculations available for valves and vessels, learning the layout, waiting for the records guy to get back to you, etc. The actual calculation may be relatively easy compared to the difficulties in getting data to work with Relief valves in equipment packages: Sometimes vendors who sell packages of equipment can design relief valves for you. For example, vendors selling a pressure reducing valve or a chemical injection system may have relief valves perfectly customized to suit their equipment. This can save you time and trouble Relief valve vendors: The good ones are quite knowledgeable. Ask for their help and advice. Ask about things like balanced and pilot relief valves if you are worried about challenges like back pressure, chattering, etc. This closes the introduction. Return to Part 1 here or Part 2 here. More topics and advice may come in subsequent posts under this category. Use the sidebar to browse posts by category. Edit 2010-04-22: Minor rewrite for clarity, added note on offline valves/maintenance. Edit 2010-11-04: Expanded example, added note on Car Sealed Open / Closed valves. Edit 2011-04-26: Noted that in some cases it is acceptable to design some flare header lines for normal flow through several relief valves, rather than the rated (scaled-byorifice size) flow. Edit 2011-09-14: Edited definition of locked open/closed vs. car sealed open/closed valves. Edit 2011-12-06: Improved description of outlet line sizing. 316SS Pressure Regulators
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Related posts: 1. Introduction to Pressure Relief Valve Design Part 2 Relief Scenarios and the Relief Rate 2. Introduction to Pressure Relief Valve Design Part 1 Types & Set Pressure 3. More help finding salaries and control valve pressure drops 4. Assign Control Valve Pressure Drops 5. Introduction to Process Hazard Safety Meetings: Part 1 Concepts and Worksheet from Relief & Safety 4 Responsesleave one
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1. reducing valve permalink December 9, 2009 Thanks much for that useful post. Reply
2. John S permalink June 1, 2010 Thank you, this has cleared up a lot of confusion I had regarding relief systems. Reply
3. Amit Bansal permalink December 19, 2010 AWESOME ARTICLES !!! Hi, I read all the way you article for relief valve. I am sizing relief valve from approx last 2 years and I found what you wrote here is very very useful for new Engineers. Warm Regards AB Reply
4. admin permalink* January 3, 2011 Glad you guys found it so useful! By the way, since a few people asked, the example numbers here (e.g. 2000 lb/hr fire case with 2.0 sq inch orifice size required and 2.853 selected) are just made up numbers to illustrate the point, not based on actual calculations. Reply Leave a Reply
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