Control Valves ne of the fastest changing areas of the control loop is the final element, which is usually a valve. Typically, all of the em- phasis and engineering focus are on the point of measurement and the control system, but little has been said about the final control ele- ment, which for this article is a valve. Addi- tionally, the de facto control valve has been the globe valve, a rising-stem technology. In recent years, there has been a wave of chal- lengers to the reining king, including quarter- turn products that have been modified to pro- vide modulating control capabilities. Ball valves have been sliced and diced, as well as the plug valves, while the butterfly valves have always exhibited decent control, but are garnering more respect as good cost alterna- tives to the globe valves. This article will dis- cuss these valve technologies, the enhance- ments to the positioners that have allowed for tighter control, wide rangeability and the use of digital communications protocols in modu- lating service. Let us look at the line up of valves in each category. First, in the challengers corner, we have the quarter turn and/or rotary valve. In general, these valves are considered for on/off applications. They are found in various batch applications, especially in food, beverage, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, specialty chemi- cals and fine chemicals manufacture. One of Check out the valve choices that are available and make an informed decision on which one is right for your application. Who is in Control? Control Valves Selection Rising Stem or Quarter Turn, O James W. Noel Invensys Systems, Inc., Foxboro Div. Bill Lyons, Invensys Flow control CEP September 2001 www.cepmagazine.org 39 the first to come out swinging is the plug valve, which has been around since the days of the Roman Empire, when it was used for water distribution. Then, there are the butterfly and ball valves to consider. In the other corner, we find the rising-stem team made up of the traditional globe valve and its varia- tions, which have also been in existence for a long time. The globe valve was first used in the 3rd century when the Ktesibios float was used as an Alexandrian water-clock to tell time. The globe valve is found in al- most every industry, particularly in petroleum refining, and chemicals and specialty chemicals manufacture, where it has been king for a long time. Then, we have the angle valve, which is also called a Y-pattern valve, along with the gate, diaphragm and pinch valves. Plug valve In reviewing the quarter-turn contenders, the plug valve, which can be lined with a polymer or lu- bricated, has been used for a long time in applications involving wastewater treatment. It is typical- ly employed in chemical, steam and other services, where positive shut-off and no emissions are required. The plug valve has grown into the control area by mod- ifying its trim. It can have a V-shaped port, which is cut horizontally, and adds modulating control capabilities. The only limiting factor for plug valves is a higher torque rating that may require a larger actuator than for other valve technologies. Although still a good choice for wastewater applications, it has been encroaching on the globe valves domain. There are a few tips and traps when considering the use of this valve. It should be evaluated for applications that involve viscous and corrosive fluids, where it can provide bubble tight shut-off and is easy to maintain due to its adjustable packing. Try and stay with bodies less than 4 in. and less than 3 in. if you are looking for con- trol with a V-notched trim. Some of the best control ap- plications are for block and bypass service. Buttery valve Another quarter-turn contender for control is the buttery valve, which is just gaining respect as an alternative to the rising-stem design. The buttery has always been good for control, as long as the upstream shut-off pressure was not high. The buttery can have an elas- tomeric seat (e.g., rubber, polytetrauo- roethylene/PTFE), which makes it ex- cellent for bubble-tight shut-off at lower pressures. Buttery valves are also available as a high-per- formance type, in which case it is the ANSI-rated, metal- seated variety. This version can handle leak-proof shut-off on larger line sizes at higher temperatures. Buttery valves are considered to be one of the lowest cost solutions for line sizes greater than 3 in. at low pressures for gas and liq- uid ows. These valves are for use in line sizes greater than 4 in. for the resilient-seated trim and greater than 8 in. for the high-performance type. In both cases, the process should be low pressure for the slurries, suspended solids, liquids and gases they are used on. Corrosives could cause swelling of the trim unless Teon is used and these valves have a narrow range of control. Sizes greater than 6 in. are considered risky where cavitation might take place. Ball valve The ball valve rounds out the major quarter-turn offerings and is considered by many to be a com- modity item available at the local plumbing-supply store, especially since it outsells the other rotary valves by a ratio of 2:1. Again, this is a valve that has not had much respect in the processing arena. The ma- terials of construction, such as ceramics, perfluo- roalkoxy (PFA) copolymer resin and stainless steel that has been coated with corrosion and abrasive resistant materials, provide the valve with a wider range of ap- plications. Add to that the V-notched segmentation of the ball, and you have a modulating control valve. In addition to the traditional floating-ball mounting, it also comes in trunion, which finds its way into high-pres- sure applications. As with the butterfly valve, sizing of this valve is generally equal to the pipe size. Staying with body sizes less than 4 in. is recommended, espe- cially where control is desired. A few tips and traps when considering this valve: Besides the size limitations, the valve is not as good for modulating control as the globe valve, but it does handle viscous fluids, slurries and cryogenic liquids very well due to its low pressure drop. The full-ported versions of this valve offer almost no pressure drop, but are not good options for corrosives or processes where cavitation may be a problem. Watch out for vac- uum services if you have a floating-ball valve, since it only seals downstream. Rotary globe valve A valve that may be called the transitional valve between the tradi- tional rotary ball valve and the rising- stem globe is the rotary globe, also known as an eccentric plug. When re- ferred to as a rotary globe valve, it makes users feel good about the con- trol capability, even though it is not a globe style at all, but does have the capability approaching that of a globe valve. It provides the best of both worlds by of- fering increased reliability from stem leakage that ro- tary valves offer, and the controllability and perfor- mance that globe valves provide. The plug valve for throttling control is configured to actually cam into the seat upon closing, which extends the life of the seat due to the plugs not being in constant contact with the seat area during operation. With design characteristics offering protection from stem leakage, similar perfor- mance compared with globe valves, and reduced trim components, this valve has a prominent position in the food and chemical industries. Globe valve The reining champ is still the globe valve, which is the most visible of the rising-stem technology. The wide rangeability, great turndown and tight tolerance for control make it the best of breed. It can be jacketed for heating or cooling, and can be built as a divert- ing or blending valve. In any case, it has the largest installed base in modu- lating control applications. As this valve is generally the one of choice in critical or precise process applications, the selection of trim and body materials is extensive. Stainless steel, specialty alloy materials, as well as Teflon-wet- ted internals, make this valve acceptable in a wide va- riety of industrial applications including those in the light industrial, petrochemical, food, and power indus- tries. The selection of the body size, flow capacity and flow characteristic of the globe valve is generally per- formed by one of many valve-sizing programs avail- able throughout the industry. A tip or trap in using this valve is that due to the pro- cess fluid being dragged through the packing by the stem, it is susceptible to leaks causing emissions or cor- rosion. The best applications are for clean fluids and gases, not on slurries. But overall, it is the best control valve with the widest range and the most forgiving, even with inadequate process data. Remember that all of these advantages come at a price and it can get costly especial- ly in the large line sizes. Other rising-stem valves The pinch, diaphragm and gate valves round out the rising-stem offerings and each of these technologies are application specific. We find the pinch and di- aphragm valves in similar uses such as food, wastewa- ter or mining processes that have large particles that do not flow through a small port very well. The gate valve provides an inexpensive solid shut-off, but is sluggish in responding to changes in the controller output. Selection factors to consider Whatever technology you select, there is a price tag associated with that decision. More to the point, the ap- plication will drive the selection and the type of valve defined may have so many requirements that the price causes you to rethink that decision. While no ranking of valve types by cost is possible, there is always a rela- tive positioning to start from that puts all of the valves on an equal footing (at least for the first pass). Let us look at Table 1, which takes the primary offerings in order of base cost. The reason Table 1 is difficult to apply is that each valve has so many options in the area of body material and trim. A ball valve could be made of stainless steel, plastic or ceramic, and, while a plug valve has a polymer coating to protect the body, you might find that the envi- ronment causes you to use something other than cast iron. The butterfly valve has less rangeability in price, since the trim is the key variable and that is driven by the application. Each technology can use any combination of specialty metals for the body and trim and we have not even discussed the actuator that might be sized different- ly for competing valves of the same size, due to torque requirements (which impacts the total cost of the valve). The final selection should not only take into account the initial cost, but also the expected lifecy- cle and associated maintenance cost. All in all, this is not an easy decision. Table 2 is helpful in making the first pass on what valve or valves might han- dle a specific application. We recom- mend that the selection process be dis- cussed with a valve application engineer to ensure all points are covered. The next step would be to have a sizing pro- gram run on the valve style you have se- lected. This should have all the process data loaded to ensure trim, wetted mate- rials and actuator are selected as a pack- age that meets the process requirements. Control Valves 40 www.cepmagazine.org September 2001 CEP Table 1. Relative ranking of valve types by cost Valve Type Ranking Comments Ball valve, 8 Expensive with limited use metal-seated Trunion ball valve 7 High performance, limited applications, special metals Globe valve 6 Lots of optional trim and body material Rotary globe valve 5 Lots of optional trim and body material Plug valve 4 Many polymers for sleeve and plug High-performance 3 Expensive, but worth it, with few options butterfly valve Floating-ball valve 2 Lots of optional materials and body material Butterfly valve 1 Lots of soft seat material to choose from While there have not been many changes in the ac- tuators (rack-and-pinion, scotch yoke, diaphragm or hydraulic), there have been advances in the position- er, especially with respect to the electronic version. Here the intelligent or smart types have improved the ability for any valve to control the process and pro- vide diagnostics that are more meaningful. The new breeds of positioners offer HART, Foundation Field- bus, Profibus PA or DP and AS-I Bus, just to mention a few. These digital communications protocols allow operations to better understand responses to changes in the control loop due to their instantaneous feed- back. The ability to provide not only the output sig- nal, but also both position and limit stop information on the same pair of wires that the control signal trav- els in is a real boost to the operator. Couple this to the feedback on hysteresis, torque and duty cycles, and the picture gets a lot clearer as to where the prob- lem may lie. If you wish to push the envelope, there are control algorithms in the Foundation Fieldbus version that place control at the point of actuation. In summary, the debate over quarter-turn vs. ris- ing stem has many gray areas, and maybe a lot of holes, since it is so application-dependent. Only now are control engineers paying attention to what the valve technology is, and this comes about when a positioner is added and it becomes part of the loop. One of the driving forces in adding a positioner is the addition of a maintenance software package to the control system that helps predict to operations personnel through diagnostics when a valve will come out of service. Due to the data requirements, even the on/off valves are now having a positioner added to them and these valves are primarily the quarter-turn style. Previously, these were the mechanical engineers turf and not looked at by the control engineer. In terms of the valve selection, it seems that the quarter-turn types are being used as opposed to the rising-stem ones when the control requirements are not as stringent or cost is a factor. We see a large swing to rotary valves when the pressures are low, the rangeability is narrow, response is not critical and the process is stable. It has been stated by others that 60% of control loops can be done with rotary valves and these can be implemented at 60% of the cost of a rising-stem solution. It is your choice, but make an informed decision and make it ap- plication specific. CEP CEP September 2001 www.cepmagazine.org 41 BILL LYONS has been employed for over 10 years as western regional sales manager for Invensys Flow Control (601 Valencia Avenue, Suite #100, Brea, CA 92823; Phone: (909) 788-7739; Fax: (909) 788-7765; E-mail: wlyons@foxboro.com). He obtained a degree in electrical engineering from Purdue Univ. He has over 25 years of experience in the power, refining and process control industries. Lyons has produced several training videos, and held seminars on safety for the industrial marketplace. He has held past positions as a board member of the Los Angeles chapter of ISA. JAMES W. NOEL is the western region business development manager for Invensys Systems, Inc., Foxboro Div. (2000 Crow Canyon Place, Suite 360, San Ramon, CA 94583; Phone: (925) 904-2308; Fax: (925) 830-0535; E-mail: jnoel@foxboro.com). His career with Foxboro has spanned a 22-year period with both the instrument and systems divisions, which included stints of duty in Salt Lake City, UT, Media, PA, and, presently, the San Ramon, CA office. He is a senior member of ISA in the San Francisco chapter and a past president of the Utah section. With eight prior technical papers published by ISA and one by TAPPI, this becomes the first topic to cover valves. Noel graduated from Northeastern Univ. and attended the Univ. of Utah graduate school of engineering. Table 2. General selection guidelines* Valve On/Off Control Clean Dirty Abrasive Corrosive Clean Steam Steam design liquid liquid slurry liquid gas (saturated) (superheated)
Angle X X X X X X Ball X X X X X X X X X Segmented ball X X X X X X X Butterfly, X X X X X high-performance Butterfly, X X X X soft-seat Diaphragm X X X X X Gate X X X X X Globe X X X X X X Rotary globe X X X X X Pinch X X X X X X Plug X X X X X X X X *This table should only be used in making a first pass on valve selection. The authors recommend that a valve application engineer be consulted.