International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering

Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 9, September 2014)

Investigation into the Causes of Pressure Relief Valve Failure

B V. Hubballi1, Dr V B. Sondur 2
1
JCE, Belgaum Karnataka, India
2
MMEC, Belgaum Karnataka, India
Abstract-- This paper describes the preliminary Till now, two approaches are usually adopted to study
investigation of a research project that aimed to test and the performance of a spring loaded PRV. One is the
identify the causes of pressure relief valve failure. A test experimental study. Many researchers have experimented
rig suitable for testing of relief valves was designed, and analyzed spring loaded PRVs for the fluid
constructed, and tested. The purpose of the data collected
characteristics, operating parameters, and the coefficients
by testing is intended to support the alternative path to
determine the service life of relief valves following their such as discharge coefficient and pressure loss coefficient
removal from the system prior to their replace or disposal. .From the viewpoint of practical application, this method
Design, maintenance and operating changes resulting from is more reliable and suitable, since the real situations are
data and failure analysis can provide significant reliability usually simulated in the experiments. But on the other
improvements and reduced costs over the lifetime of a hand, this method is very expensive in time, manpower
valve. and facilities. Hence, with the development of computer
and numerical method, more and more researchers
Keywords—Erosion pits, Poppet, Valve seat, Pressure started to use computer simulation to investigate.
Relief Valve, Leakage.
As pointed in , the poppet flow is not easily suited to
classical mathematical analysis. The relative simple
I. INTRODUCTION
geometry, Fig. 1a, produces a very complicated viscous
Understanding and predicting the relationship between flow field, which can be realistically investigated only in
pressure drop and flow rate through orifices is essential the industry hydraulic systems valves are often used to
for the design and evaluation of fluid power and flow control the systems. In case of a complex system with
control devices. Hydraulic valves differ from process many hydraulic valves, it will take a lot of time to
control valves in application and design. Hydraulic localize a defect valve in the system, and sometime a
valves are typically used for controlling pressures are of defect valve could result in large damage of the system.
the quick opening type of characteristics. Quick opening To find this defect on the valve before it will damage on
valves utilize plugs shaped in the form of a truncated the system would be very helpful.
cone with relatively large clearances between the plug
and the seat. Pressure relief valve test intervals may be
safely extended when supported by quality test data,
statistical tools, and failure analysis.
The ability to understand and manage the performance
of hydraulic control valves is important in many
automatic and manual industrial processes.
The flow inside the poppet valve is a complex process
which is strongly dependent on the details of the valve
geometry, the fluid properties and the operating Fig.1. Pressure Relief Valve cut section
conditions. Separation and re-attachment
of jets can have a profound effect on the flow pressure II. DESCRIPTION O F A SPRING LOADED PRV
and force characteristics as well as influencing the The simplified representation of the spring loaded
susceptibility to cavitations. PRV studied is shown in Fig.2.
A poppet valve seating-type valve in which the
moving element or poppet, usually spherical or conical
shape, moves in a direction perpendicular to its seat.
Because of the several advantages that are associated
with poppet valves such as ease of manufacture,
minimum leakage, and insensibility to clogging by dirt
particles, poppet’s have been used for as pressure
regulators and relief valves. The operation of this type of
valve is quite simple. The fluid pressure counterbalances Fig.2. Direct operated pressure relief valve
(1- Valve housing; 2 - Spring; 3- Adjusting screw ; 4-Spring
the spring force and allows fluid escape through the
retainer; 5 – Poppet; P - inlet; T - outlet)
annular passage way between the poppet and the seat.

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 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 9, September 2014)
The pressure setting of the valve is achieved via
compressing the spring a given length. When the pressure
at the upstream is bigger than the setting pressure, the
poppet will be lifted due to the break of the force balance
previously by the force of flowing fluid acting on the
poppet.
The opened gap between the valve seat and poppet
relieves some flow to the outlet. The relieved flow
increased the lift force suddenly, which cause the valve
poppet open more and suddenly, when the major flow
enter the chamber, the build-up back pressure becomes
bigger and reduces the total lift force induced by the
fluid. Under the total effect of flowing fluid and spring,
the valve poppet will achieve its steady position
gradually after a period of fluctuation.
III. RELIEF V ALVE F AILURES
Hydraulic valves are precision-made and must be very
accurate in controlling a fluid pressure, direction, and
volume within a hydraulic system. Contaminants, such as
dirt, in the oil , geometry clearances and wrong selection
are the major problems in valve failures. Small amounts
of dirt, lint, rust, or sludge and misalignment of valve
parts can cause annoying malfunctions and extensively
damage valve parts. Such material will cause a valve to
stick, plug small openings, or abrade the mating surfaces
until a valve leaks.
Investigation Into the valve failure due to erosion
Present understanding of the mechanism of erosion is
far from complete, because it is a complex and highly
localized phenomenon that involves the interaction of
hydrodynamical, mechanical, metallurgical, and chemical
effects. Understanding of such complex phenomenon
requires a full clarification of the erosion mechanism and
controlling parameters inherent to it, so that erosion can
be prevented, or at least be reduced. This cannot be done
without full information and collection of massive data
under different conditions.
From the literature survey a consensus has developed
that material removal in multiple-impact situations
cavitation erosion, liquid-droplet erosion, and of solid-
particle erosion is not a result of single impulses or
impacts. It clearly showed that the predominant failure
mode in material erosion was fatigue. This damage
accumulates over thousands of impacts before a particle
is dislodged .
Erosion is the material removal of a solid surface
caused by impact of fluid forces . The degree of the
erosion depends on various factors such as intensity of
cavitation, geometry of cavitation jet, pressure and
temperature in a system, properties of fluid such as
viscosity and density, and material properties such as
hardness, work hardening capability, and geometry.
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Fig.3.(White cicle shows worn surfaces ie,erosion pits , deformed
groove on the Poopet and valve seat)
Appearance of worn surfaces
It is observed that many of the valves used in the range
of one to two years have the wear scars achieved on the
valve seating faces appeared uneven. Observation of the
seating faces of both the poppet and valve seat revealed
the presence of erosion pits and groove. The unevenness
of the wear scars was caused by non-uniform contact
between the valve and seat insert.
From the previous studies ,it is known that the initial
stage of the erosion, i.e., the incubation period, is of
paramount importance in understanding the basic
mechanism of the erosion, and pit formation is one of the
characteristics of this period. Pit formation is generally
acknowledged to be a complex process. The shape,
depth, and appearance of pits will depend on the amount
of forces acting on the poppet and valve seat region,
however, pit formation is still the subject of debate
among many investigators, partially because the test
conditions are somewhat different from each other. In
addition, the effects of these pits on erosion or
development of erosion are still uncertain.
IV. T ROUBLESHOOTING T HE RELIEF V ALVES
Listed below are the areas that you can troubleshoot
the relief valves:
If low or erratic pressure occurs for the sake of
troubleshooting, the following items must be considered.
Valve adjustment is incorrect.
Dirt, chip, or burrs may cause the valve partially
open.
Poppets or seats may be worned or damaged.
Valve piston in the main body may be sticked.
Selection of spring is wrong
Spring ends may be damaged.
Valve in the body may be cocked.
Orifice or balance hold may be blocked.
If relief valve has no pressure, the following items
must be considered.
Orifice or balance hole may be plugged.
Poppet does not seat.
Valve may have a loose fit.
Spring may be broken.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 9, September 2014)
Dirt, chip, or burrs may cause the valve partially
open.
Poppet or seat may be worned or damaged.
Valve in the body may be cocked.
If excessive noise occurs consider the following items;
Oil viscosity may be too high.
Poppet or seat may be faulty or worned.
Line pressure may have an excessive return.
Pressure setting is too close to that of another valve
in the circuit.
Spring may be broken.
If adjustment of the relief valve can not be achieved Fig.4.
properly, consider the following items;
Spring may be broken.
Fatigue for spring material may come across.
Improper spring may have been used.
Drain line in system may be restricted.

V. PRESSURE RELIEF V ALVE C YCLIC T EST R IG

To investigate the valve fatigue failure conducted
cyclic test on the designed valve test rig .We found from
these cyclic tests valve failure depends mainly on that the
valve design, fluid, fluid contamination and flow
characteristics.
In this study, we focus on the details of the flow
fluctuations around the poppet for various pressure drop.
Erosion pits and their effects on erosion progression were
investigated in detail for direct acting Pressure Relief
Valve (DPRV06) and by means of designed cyclic valve Fig.5.
test rig. There are mainly two kinds of poppet and valve
Element Material Hardness Hardening Weight
seat damages observed from the rejected valves. These
are erosion pits , deformed groove on the poppet and Poppet SAE8620 RC Through 3.410
valve seat were found on the valve specimen surfaces. 42-45 gm
Long duration tests are performed in order to Valve EN-19 RC Case 26.040
determine experimentally the incubation time and the Seat 58-60 gm
mean depth of penetration rate. These effects are Bench test work designed to investigate valve and seat
generally due to an interaction between the cavitating wear and isolate critical parameters, the data from which
flow and the walls via, for instance, changes in roughness could be used to develop a model to predict valve
or wall shape induced by the wear itself. Flow conditions recession.
can also have a dramatic effect on wear rates and The aims of the cyclic bench test work were to:
patterns. Using our test facilities, the effect of variations
in flow conditions such as pressure or overall flow rate 1. Investigate the wear mechanisms occurring in the
can be tested by observing the leakage flow. valve mainly on the poppet and valve seat.
Developed manifold for pressure relief valve mounting 2. Study the effect of valve wear in the hydraulic
on the valve test rig. Parameters included for test are circuit.
cycles, geometry, oil temperature and material. Valve 3. Effect of fluid temperature on the valve elements.
seat and poppet materials characteristic of those currently 4. Quantify the effect of poppet and valve seat
used in DPRV06 applications were selected for use in the contact.
tests. The geometries of the valve seat and poppet are To develop procedures for the inspections and testing
shown in Fig. Both the poppet and valve seat materials of pressure relief valves that follow “good engineering
are different with different hardness. practices.” The good engineering practices identified
included conducting leakage test and visual inspection of
pressure relief valves when removed from service.

648
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 9, September 2014)
The test rig was designed and tested flawlessly to
determine at what pressure the removed relief valve
would have actuated. The next step is to use this data to
determine whether or not the relief valve “passed” or
“failed.” The data generated from this test procedure can
be used with a statistical analysis to justify changing the
service life of the pressure relief valves in similar service
to insure safe operation .
Its installation at that location does not affect the
reading since the pressure of interest is the valve “starts-
to-leak” and/or “crack pressure,” both of which are low
flow conditions. As such, the pressure read off the gauge
in this location is virtually identical to the relief device
inlet pressure at the point of relief valve operation.
The relief valves tested included a mix of new and
used valves. We choose used relief valves from a variety
of customers as well as locations throughout the plants
where the project being carried out.. The range of
locations allowed us to test the “condition report”
requirements of the procedure in order to see if the form
included within the test procedure adequately captured
the necessary information.
Relief Valve Test Observations
We tested five (5) used relief valves and five (5) new
relief valves. Since the purpose of the tests was to
validate the method, no archival “data” on the tested
relief valves was generated. The pressure relief valves
were put through the originally proposed procedure to
see if the set pressure could reliably be determined with
the start-to-leak test.
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The experimental rig, as-constructed, performed well
over the entire range of relief valve capacities and set
pressures tested. Even with the operating temperature
range from room temp to 80ºC, the relief valve inlet
pressure rise was slow enough to provide the test rig
operator an ample opportunity for reading the pressure
gauge accurately. .
Start-to-leak tests
Start-to-leak tests feasible and preferred option for
determining the opening pressure of relief valves being
tested. However, as we tested more rejected relief valves
and we found that all valves exhibit a “leakage”
characteristic. While no direct measurement of pressure
relief valve lift is done, actuation of the relief valve is
easily determined by the flow through the relief valve.
The rig performed very well during these tests.
The benefit of using the test is that the method allowed
estimates of the relief valve’s closing pressure, or full
flow pressure to be easily measured. When the relief
valve recloses, the pressure on the gauge shows the
closing pressure directly.
Cyclic test on New Pressure Relief Valve
Performed cyclic tests on a given specimen valve, the
intent of data gathered by this testing procedure to
provide justification for the replacement of valve
elements mainly poppet , valve seat and spring . For the
system set pressure observed the valve leakage and valve
elements erosion wear for every1200 cycles. Both the
poppet and valve seat revealed the no presence of erosion
pits and groove. It was also observed no wear damage
was observed for a long extended test period, ie, up to
52000 cycles.
Effect of temperature
Tests run on the hydraulic loading apparatus were also
designed to study the effect of temperature on valve
wear. The majority of the tests were run from room
temperature to 70º C. Testing at an increased temperature
from 70 °C to 80º C, was found to have effect on the
deformation at the contact surface of poppet with the
valve seat.
Analysis of rejected valves
Parameters considered are hardness, geometry,
operating characteristics like setting pressure, full flow
pressure and cracking pressure and leakage flow.
At higher temperatures ie, 70º C to 80º , it is possible
that the hardness of the poppet and valve seat valve may
be reduced due to tempering, which could lead to
increased valve recession or even fatigue failure of
valves.
 International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering
Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 4, Issue 9, September 2014)
VI. RESULTS AND D ISCUSSIONS
The outcome of this effort was focused on determining
whether the test rig was adequate in size and function,
and that the test procedure is capable of providing data
that can support downstream statistical analysis of relief
valve mechanical integrity (service life).
The valve seat, poppet wear problem involves two
distinct mechanisms: impact of the poppet on the valve
seat on valve closure and sliding of the poppet on the
valve seat under the action of the system pressure.
Depending , however, on the accuracy of the poppet
and the valve seat machining ,it is conceivable that such
misalignment may occur in valve and, therefore, be a
source of valve recession.
When a component reliability program is in place to
verify relief valve functionality and longevity by history,
testing, disassembly and inspection, and periodic
statistical review of these activities, relief valves may be
replaced at any interval justified by the findings of such a
program. In the absence of such a program, each relief
valve shall be replaced at the frequency recommended by
the relief valve manufacturer. In the absence of both a
component reliability program and manufacturers’
recommendations, relief valves shall be replaced every
five years if not indicated earlier at annual inspection.
Having analysed the root causes of the valve failure
and considered the implications for valve design and seat
and poppet materials, it is decided to investigate the
potential for reducing valve recession by improving the
existing design.
VII. CONCLUSION
Stating the root cause of valve recession is difficult.
Each valve recession problem will have its own unique
set of operating parameters, design features, and material
combinations. The investigation, however, has clearly
shown that:
A successful design of poppet valves requires a
thorough analysis of both velocity and pressure fields,
with the aim of improving the poppet/seat geometry.
1. Systematic observations of the feature of erosion pits
and the groove showed that the predominant failure
was a fatigue process. In order to detect erosion
damage of the closure member or possible blockage in
the valve body, it is necessary in addition to measure
the pressure over the valve and to obtain data of the
volume flow through the valve. This data can best be
obtained through a data transfer bus from the
measurement sensors.
2. Material choice is clearly critical in addressing valve
wear problems. In deciding which material
combination to use, consideration should be given to
deciding which is more preferable: greater valve seat
wear or greater poppet wear.
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Clearly, replacing poppet is less costly than replacing
valve seat. Therefore, work needs to be focused on
reducing poppet and valve seat wear at an acceptable
level. Ultimately, however, it would be preferable not
to have to replace either and to reduce the adjustment
required on valve clearances, as a result of recession,
to an absolute minimum. In selecting materials,
consideration must be given to the relative resistance
required for wear.
3. The bench test apparatus provides a valid physical
simulation of the wear of both poppet and valve seat in
the pressure relief valve. An obvious possible upgrade
to the test rig would be to integrate a pressure
transducer and computer data acquisition program.
4. Wear may increases with valve closing velocity,
system pressure, and misalignment of the poppet,
valve seat and spring retainer.
Acknowledgement
This research work carried out at POYHYDRON PVT
LTD, Belgaum Karnataka and thanks to the Directors and
Technical staff for their assistance and guidance
throughout this work.
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