How to Specify a Capillary Seal

Assembly
The following tip is from the ISA book by Greg McMillan and Hunter Vegas titled 101
Tips for a Successful Automation Career, inspired by the ISA Mentor Program. This is
Tip #14.
 
To master engineering design, you must master the art of trade-offs. An engineer is
constantly balancing one criterion against another, gaining something here but giving up
something else there. There will often be several factors to consider, all of which may
counter or offset each other to varying degrees. Picking the right combination of
features to suit the application can be challenging.
Specifying a capillary seal assembly is a perfect example of this.
 

 
Concept: Choosing the correct capillary seals for a particular transmitter installation
seems like a minor thing, until you begin to understand the multitude of design decisions
involved. Many an engineer has failed to grasp this and has gone through several
meters until they got one that worked.

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Details: Capillary seals are used to isolate a pressure or differential pressure
transmitter from the process by transferring pressure from the process to a remote
mounted transmitter. Some processes are prone to plugging of the impulse line, and the
installation of a 2” or 3” seal in a full size line is much less likely to result in plugging
than a typical ½” piece of tubing would be. In addition, sanitary applications use a lot of
capillary seals because they are easier to clean. A capillary seal consists of the seal
itself (which is a flexible diaphragm), a piece of capillary tubing, and a standard
pressure or DP transmitter, all carefully filled with a hydraulic fluid that has had all vapor
removed. When pressure is applied to the seal, it is transmitted via the hydraulic fluid to
the transmitter. Differential pressure transmitters will often, (but not always), have two
seals, one on each side.

Here is a brief list of items that can cause an engineer serious problems:
• If two seals are installed on a differential transmitter, make the seals the same size
and the capillaries the same length if possible. (This may require coiling up the unused
length of capillary on one side.) The problem is that all hydraulic fluids expand with
temperature, and the overall expansion is a function of volume. If the seals are the
same size and the capillaries are the same length, the hydraulic expansion from one
side will cancel the other, and the overall zero shift will be minimized. If one leg is longer
or one seal is bigger, the hydraulic expansion will be greater on that side, and the zero
shift can be significant.

• Seals with a bigger diaphragm are more sensitive and can measure lower pressures.
However, bigger diaphragm seals have a larger volume and tend to show a larger zero
shift due to process temperature changes. Smaller diaphragm seals have less volume
and tend to have reduced temperature-related zero shift problems, but they are not as
sensitive and cannot detect low ranges of pressure.

• Larger capillary tubing provides a faster response, but the increased volume results in
increased zero shift due to ambient temperature changes. Smaller diameter tubing has
reduced volume and tends to cause less zero shift, but the smaller cross-sectional area
increases the lag time considerably. This can be a big problem if the seal fluid has a
high viscosity.

• Vacuum conditions in the process can ruin a seal, unless special hydraulic seal fluids
are used. (Vacuum lowers the boiling point of the fluid and if the hydraulic fluid boils, the
resulting vapor usually ruins the seal.) Some hydraulic fluids are designed to handle
vacuum, but they tend to be viscous and may create other problems (see below).
• Choosing the proper seal fluid can be difficult. Trade-offs abound. Here is a quick list
of things to consider:

> Some processes prohibit certain fluids (such as silicone, etc.) from being used
because any leakage into the process would have undesirable consequences. Check
with the plant to make sure this is not a concern.
> Low viscosity fluids provide much faster response and are usually suitable for lower
temperatures, but they usually cannot handle vacuum or high temperature conditions.

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> High viscosity fluids can handle higher temperature and vacuum, but they tend to
have much slower response, and this response can get dramatically worse during low
ambient temperature conditions.
• Be careful when trying to measure a low differential pressure between seals that are
vertically far apart. (A common scenario is trying to measure the differential pressure
across a distillation column.) In this scenario, the weight of the capillary fluid in the legs
shifts the zero dramatically. Most transmitters will only allow a zero shift of four to five
times the maximum range. If you are trying to measure 0-25” wc across two taps that
are 100’ apart vertically, the required zero shift will be approximately (100’ × 12” × SG of
fluid), which will be well beyond the zero shift allowed for most transmitters. A higher
range transmitter can be used, but sensitivity will be lost.

Watch-Outs: Be extremely careful to select knowledgeable technicians to install

capillary seals. Many a pipefitter has pulled them out of the box and bolted them up
without the proper gaskets and spacers. If this happens, the seals will almost certainly
be ruined.
Exceptions: If your process could encounter high vacuums at high temperatures,
evaluate your options carefully. There may not be a fluid available that will suit your
application.
Insight: Never use a single seal, pad type tank level DP transmitter on a tank whose
temperature varies. This type has a single 3″ or 4″ seal on the high side and is vented to
atmosphere on the other side. Because this arrangement has a large seal on only one
side, the unit will be prone to significant zero shifts due to process temperature
changes. If the process temperature fluctuates, the level reading will fluctuate as well.
Rule of Thumb: When faced with specifying this type of meter, you would be wise to
seek out help from an expert until you fully understand all of the options and design

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trade-offs. These meters are NOT cheap and the specifying engineer can ill afford a
couple of iterations to get it right.

https://automation.isa.org/tip-14-capillary-seal-pitfalls/

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