PROCESS DYNAMICS AND CONTROL

H83PDC

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10. Control Valves and Practical Considerations

Brief consideration of control valves (no

calculations), practical limitations and look at
photographs of instrumentation and control
equipment.
Automatic Control Valves (Final Control Element)
 Automatic Control Valves (Final Control Element)

DP
q(t ) = CV (t )
G
•An automatic control valve is simply an adjustable resistance to
flow, i.e. it has a variable flow coefficient CV(t)
•The flow capacity of a control valve is given by its CVmax rating
•CVmax is numerically equal to the flow of water (in US gallons per
minute) through the isolated valve when operated fully open with a
pressure difference of 1 psi.
•1 litre min-1 = 0.26417 USgpm; G=specific gravity
•Formula holds for single phase, non-flashing fluids in sub-critical
flow
 Automatic Control Valves Summary

Can be expensive items.

Stiction (mechanical sticking and friction) of valve stems can cause

problems such as hysteresis and cycling, which can be propagated
throughout the plant.

Sizing can be complex and dependent on items in series, eg pumps, heat

exchangers. From control viewpoint a higher proportion of ΔP across
valve is good, from operational economic viewpoint bad. Normal
practice is to size a valve so it takes 25-33% of system pressure drop.
Choose CVmax so at normal conditions the valve will be 70% open.

In the event of failure of the pneumatic system the valve will be designed
to fail open or closed. Most applications will fail closed, some such as
for cooling will fail open.
There are three types:
quick opening - on-off applications
linear – not so frequently used
equal percentage – most common since effectively linear in series
with other process units.
 PROPORTIONAL BANDWIDTH
•Here we are looking at the controller from a practical
viewpoint.
•PBW is the percentage of the measurement range which causes
the control valve to swing between fully open and tight shut.
•Numerically speaking:
PBW=100/KC %
where KC is the DIMENSIONLESS controller gain factor (as we
have used it in modelling eg in Simulink).

In our modelling we do not consider the valve reaching its

limits, but in practice we would not want any control valves to
be fully closed or open, unless operating in on-off mode.
 CONTROLLER ACTION
•Sign of the controller gain is set separately as either DIRECT
or REVERSE action
Direct action: increasing measurement – increasing output
Reverse action: increasing measurement – decreasing output

EXERCISE: Direct or Reverse action for control of:

level, flow, T in cooler, T in heater ?
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