Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
Final Control Elements or Correcting Units
The final control elements or correcting unit in a control loop can take
many forms. It may be a valve, damper, and a louvre or in some case cases
a motor. The control valve is the most common correcting unit found in
marine process control systems and will therefore be considered in some
detail. It is usual to consider a control valve or other correcting unit to be
made up of two distinct part, the actuator or motor element, which
provides the operating force, and the valve body or correcting element
through which the controlled fluid flows. Movement of the valve or other
unit will require considerable force in most situations. This can be provided
by compressed air, hydraulic power or in some cases electricity.
• Final control elements are an essential part of process control systems,
allowing an operator to achieve a desired process variable output by
manipulating a process variable.
• Traditional methods of positioning final control elements include electric
actuators with squirrel-cage motors that suffer from duty-cycle limitations,
poor resolution, and poor reliability. Commonly used pneumatic actuators
suffer from stick/slip overshoot and high maintenance requirements. It is
required that your actuator should move when and where the controller
tells it to, in many cases dead time and stick/slip overshoot cause delays in
reaching the set point. The inefficiencies of these technologies can subject
the process to relatively poor control.
• When selecting an actuator for a final control element, the actuator should
have performance characteristics that will enable a control system to
perform as designed.
The key final control element actuator performance characteristics are as
follows:
• Precise, repeatable positioning typically better than 0.15% of span.
• The ability to start and stop instantaneously without dead time or
position overshoot.
• Continuous duty rating without limitations on the number of starts per
minute.
• Perform consistently and unaffected by load.
• Rugged industrial design capable of operating in difficult environments
without an effect on performance.
• Minimal periodic maintenance required.
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
A final control element actuator designed with these characteristics provides
two extremely important advantages:
• An ability to follow the demand signal from the controller precisely and
instantly. This ensures that the actuator responds exactly as directed by
the controller. Thus, the actuator is not the limiting factor in the control
loop and the controller can function to its optimal levels.
• A high degree of maintenance-free reliability. An actuator designed to
function as outlined above by default is more rugged than typical
actuators. By design, then, it is capable of a much higher degree of
reliability.
Actuator
• An actuator will be selected according to the type of valve it is to operate
and the motion required. It must generate a sufficient force to overcome
the reaction forces created by a valve and provide an appropriate stroke.
• It must be compatible with the operating signal source, act with a suitable
speed of response and in the event of supply failure must leave the valve
in the most desirable condition. Three particular types of actuator are
popular. They are classified by the operating medium employed, namely
compressed air, electricity and hydraulic oil.
Pneumatic Actuator (Diaphragm actuator)
Pneumatic actuators usually appear as diaphragm or piston operated devices.
The diaphragm actuator has a relatively short stroke and this limits its
applications. It is however quite adequate for most globe type valve operating
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
applications. The piston actuator can have a very long stroke and provides large
forces for valve operation.
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
• An actuator is a mechanism that physically open or closes the valve. The actuator is
an intermediate device between the control signal and the final control element
(valve). It must provide an accurate output position proportional to the input signal
in spite of various forces such as
a) Inertia forces
b) Static friction forces
c) Thrust forces caused by the weight and unbalanced fluid pressure.
• Diaphragm actuators have compressed air applied to a flexible membrane called the
diaphragm. These types of actuators are single acting, in that air is only supplied to
one side of the diaphragm, and they can be either direct acting (spring-to-retract) or
reverse acting (spring-to-extend).
• There are two types of diaphragm actuators
a) Direct acting (Spring to retract)
b) Reverse acting (Spring to extend)
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
Various combination of pneumatic diaphragm actuator and
Valves
Air to open and Air to close type (single seat 2 port globe valves)
with (Direct and reverse acting) actuators and valve action
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Single Seat Valve
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Fail Safe and Fail Set Strategies
• On failure of control air supply, the pneumatic actuator may be arranged
to move to a position that allows the plant to continue to operate safely,
in other words, fully opened or fully closed. This is known as fail safe. For
example, in the case of a jacket cooling water system, on failure of
control air, the actuator opens fully to allow jacket water to the cooler
without bypass. On the other hand a fuel oil control valve for boiler
closes completely on such a failure. This ensures safety of the plant.
• In some other systems, control air supply failure locks the position of
valve at that time of failure. This is called fail set. The advantage of this
system is that the plant gets stable and have time for normal shutdown
or can wait for reestablishment of control air supply for some time.
Example for such a system is boiler water level control.
• These are given the first importance while choosing a control valve and
actuator.
Double Seated Globe Valves
If a larger valve having a larger orifice is used to pass greater volumes of the
medium then the force that the actuator must develop in order to close the
valve will also increase. Where large capacities must be passed using large
valves or where very high differential pressures exist, the point will be reached
where it becomes impractical to provide sufficient force to close a
conventional single seat valve. In such circumstances, the traditional solution
to this problem is the double seat two port valve.
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
Three Port globe valves
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
• Three position or three port valves can be used for mixing or
diverting depending upon the plug and seat arrangement inside the
valve.
• The process fluid enters the valve through port AB and can leave
from either Port A or Port B or a proportion may leave from each
port.
• The actuator gets control air from the controller. Eg: ME jacket
cooling water outlet enters Port AB and enters the JW cooler via Port
A or Bypasses the cooler Via Port B depending on the temperature of
the water outlet
Diaphragm actuator with Valve Positioner
It may be considered necessary to fit valve positioners to control
valves to ensure accurate location of the valve disc. Problems such
as valve stem friction loads due to packing, valve disc imbalance and
hysteresis in the diaphragm and return spring can also be overcome
by the use of a valve positioner. Usually associated with valve
positioner, a pneumatic volume booster may be used to speed up
the valve movement.
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
IP Converter
Pneumatic--Piston actuators (Double Acting) with two
relays valve positioner
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
Piston actuators (Single Acting)
They are used when the stroke of a diaphragm actuator would be too short or
the thrust is too small. Compressed air is applied to a solid piston contained
within a solid cylinder. Simple designs have the air fed into a central chamber
and the air forces the piston upwards. When the air pressure is removed, the
shaft moves in the opposite direction due to the reverse force spring. Piston
actuators can also being double acting, meaning the air can be fed into either
side of the piston since there is not a return spring.
Piston actuator (Double acting) with Cylindrical Valve positioner
This type of valve positioner is normally installed in the main
engine JCW, Lub oil, LT water temperature control system on
board the ship.
It is normally used with 3-way rotary valve.
The controller output is between 0.2 to 1.0 bar (3 – 15 psi)
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
JCW system 3 way rotary valve with cylindrical positioner and actuator
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
Self-acting Valves (Thermostatic valve)
An engine thermostatic valve consists of several springs, a seal, a charge
cylinder (full of wax) and several valves; sometimes an air bleed is also fitted.
The thermostat is actuated due to the varying temperature of the cooling
water system. The thermostat's purpose is to warm the engine quickly (by by-
passing the radiator), maintain the engine at an optimum operating
temperature and ensure overheating does not occur.
Compiled By: Lloyd Samuel
When the cooling water (also called 'jacket water') is cold, a valve will by-pass
the radiator (Cooler) and thus the temperature of the cooling water will
gradually increase (providing the engine is still running). As the temperature
increases, wax within the charge cylinder will melt, expand and push a rod
further out of the charge cylinder. The expansion causes the radiator by-pass
valve to close and the valve discharging to the radiator to open. Essentially the
system is a feedback loop, where the cooling water temperature dictates how
much the thermostat is open or closed. It is important to remember that a
thermostat is two valves, a radiator by-pass valve and a discharge to radiator
main valve.
