Selecting a Butterfly Valve Instead of a Globe Valve for Fluid Control in a Utility Service in the Offshore Industry (Based on an Industrial Experience)

Karan Sotoodeh^1,

¹Piping Engineering, AkerSolutions, Oslo, Norway

Cite this paper:
Karan Sotoodeh. Selecting a Butterfly Valve Instead of a Globe Valve for Fluid Control in a Utility Service in the Offshore Industry (Based on an Industrial Experience). American Journal of Mechanical Engineering. 2018; 6(1):27-31. doi: 10.12691/ajme-6-1-4

Abstract

Straight pattern globe valves are widely used in the oil and gas industry to regulate and control the flow of fluids. During operation, these valves are exposed to problems such as cavitation. Cavitation happens when the pressure in a liquid suddenly drops, leaving behind a bubble of gas. There are some strategies that can be used to mitigate the risk of cavitation, such as designing the valves as per API 623 standard, selecting a different valve type such as Y-Type or axial valves, or hard facing the valve internals. These solutions increase the cost of valve selection and are more suitable for the valves in process services, such as valves containing hydrocarbon. The main question this research seeks to answer is whether a butterfly valve (e.g., wafer type) is a good replacement for a straight pattern globe valve in utility services such as water. It is noticeable that wafer type butterfly valves are much cheaper than globe valves, especially when it comes to exotic materials. 12 control valves in water services in titanium and duplex in an offshore unit were selected for research. The manual valves on the bypass of the control valves were evaluated for globe or butterfly valve selection. The data analysis included two methods of cavitation analysis and pressure drop analysis. The risk of cavitation for both butterfly and globe valves is almost the same. The analysis shows that butterfly valves are slightly more prone to cavitation risk. When it comes to pressure drop calculation analysis, none of the globe valves were suitable. On the other hand, 6 butterfly valves were suitable for the fluid control after pressure drop and cavitation analysis. In conclusion, butterfly valves are recommended for fluid control in utility services such as water.

Keywords:
valve selection cavitation oil and gas industry offshore

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