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Introduction to Pressure Relief Valve Design Part 3 – Sizing Orifices and Piping – Smart Process Design Chemical Engineering

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Introduction to Pressure Relief Valve


Design Part 3 – Sizing Orifices and Piping
2009 NOVEMBER 21

by admin tags: choked flow, pressure relief valve, relief valves

This is the third in a set of articles introducing the basics of pressure relief valve design from a
process designer’s viewpoint. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Orifice Sizes

Now that you have the scenarios and all the fluid data for them, you can size the orifice. API 520/521
has some equations for this, as well as good advice and factors to put into the equations. There are
many programs and spreadsheets out there, so find out what your office uses. You will be better off just
reading the design standard you have to use, rather than I trying to explain something that may not
apply to you.

One key factor that any calculation procedure will have you do is check for choked flow / critical flow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choked_flow Choked flow is when a fluid is going so fast that it
reaches sonic velocity: after that, it cannot go any faster no matter what the downstream pressure is. 
You should know the approximate inlet and outlet pressures of the relief valve, so you can check if you
will reach choked flow. If it is choked, then that changes your results. API discusses this.

Once you have several orifice sizes calculated, you will select the relief valve orifice size just a bit
higher than the maximum area that you calculated. So if you calculate 1 square inch for the fire case, 2
sq in for the cooling water failure case, and 0.5 sq in for thermal expansion, you’d probably take the L
orifice which is good for up to 2.853 sq in. After that, you look at a catalogue of relief valves and you
can see what sizes are offered for that relief valve orifice size. For example, a 4 N 6 valve means a 4”
inlet flange, 6” outlet flange, and a N sized orifice. I would not expect to find a 1 N 2 valve though.

You may notice some discussions of accumulation in the sizing standards: in API 520, figure 1 shows
that you can have 10% accumulation in most cases with a single relief valve, 16% in most cases if there
is more than one relief valve, and 21% for a fire case. What does this mean?

Well, let’s say the relief valve set pressure is 100 psig. The valve you bought is going to start opening at
100 psig. But it will not fully open immediately and magically vent absolutely everything to a safe
location in an instant. Instead, the pressure will probably get a little above 100 psig as the valve opens;
it will open fast, but not instantaneously. An allowable accumulation (also known as allowable
overpressure) of 10% means that the pressure in the vessel can get as high 110 psig at some temporary
point in the process of the relief valve opening. The relief valve vendor is going to look at your set
pressure, look at the flowrate for the worst relief scenarios, and then make sure the valve acts fast
enough that things never ever get worse than 110 psig. (Or 121 psig for a fire).

Inlet and Outlet Piping


Design of the inlet and outlet piping of relief valves must be done carefully. For a start, you want low
pressure drops. High pressure drops upstream of the valve can cause pipe stress / vibration, and also a
high pressure loss can “hide” the real pressure in the vessel from the valve. A high downstream outlet
pressure can result in back-pressure: the high outlet pressure “pushes” your relief valve and makes it
harder to open or stay open. In general the inlet pressure drop from protected equipment to relief valve

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Introduction to Pressure Relief Valve Design Part 3 – Sizing Orifices and Piping – Smart Process Design Chemical Engineering Blog | Smart Process Design

should be max 3% of set pressure (in gauge pressure), and the outlet pressure drop from relief valve to
the final destination (flare stack / vent location / etc.) should be maximum 10% of set pressure. Tip:
“balanced” relief valves, a special type of relief valves, may help if you cannot meet these rules.

Also, because relief scenarios can put a lot of strain onto pipes, you should work with your piping
designer to minimize pipe stress and have a mechanically robust layout.

When designing inlet and outlet piping, the flowrates you use are NOT just the relief scenario flowrates.
Rather, they are the flowrates multiplied by the actual orifice size / the calculated orifice size.

(ex: I complete calculations for all the relief scenarios, and the largest load is from the fire case. I have
a fire case generating 2000 lb/hr, and I calculate I need a 2.000 sq inch orifice using my API rules.
But the actual orifice I buy is going to be the closest orifice size I can find that is equal to or greater
than the calculated size; probably the closest size I can find is 2.853 sq inches.   My calculations told
me to buy 2.000 sq inch but I actually bought 2.853 sq inch. Therefore I design all the piping and the
flare header as if there were 2000 x 2.853 / 2.000 = 2853 lb/hr at relief. All my other relief scenarios
will be scaled the same way)

Recall that you checked for choked flow in the orifice sizing. Choked flow is OK in the valve, but it’s a
bad idea for the piping. Many companies have a rule of thumb like “keep relief valve outlet pipe velocity
below X% of sonic in all cases.” Where X might be 60, 70, 75%. Larger outlet pipes will help you avoid
sonic flow.

(For a fluid, Sonic velocity (ft/s) = 68.1 x root(k * P/ rho), where k, P (psia), and rho (lb/ft3) are
evaluated at the actual fluid conditions).

Odds and Ends


Some miscellaneous thoughts to close this post and encourage further reading:

Iteration: You notice that to size the orifice you need fluid properties at the inlet of the valve, and
you don’t technically know them until you calculate the inlet pressure drop. (So that you know the
exact inlet pressure). Sometimes you can avoid this by just assuming inlet pressure = set pressure,
or inlet pressure = set pressure – 3%. If you cannot, you may need to iterate. Other steps may also
require design iteration: doing your relief design may stimulate you to change the process system
to make the relief valve cheaper. Also, you may need to do some relief design to get scenarios and
rough flowrates before you start the flare header design, and then change parts of your relief
system as you run through the flare system. (Recall that normally you want to limit outlet piping
pressure drop, and that the relief header can face several relief loads at once in some cases like
power failures or large pool fires…sometimes in the flare header design you find reasons to go
back and change the relief valves)

Two-phase flow: Is common and makes this all more complicated. API 520 Appendix D has
some advice. Information from the Design Institute for Emergency Relief Systems (DIERS)
http://www.aiche.org/technicalsocieties/DIERS/index.aspx may help if you need to get
into real details

Choose the right set pressure: Don’t make the set pressure unnecessarily low “to be safe.”
Each time a relief valve opens you are losing product. And now someone’s got to go make sure it
closed properly, and test it…you want to design your system so that the relief valve is never used.
For similar reasons, remember that relief valves are safety devices, not control devices.
Use a normal control loop to control pressure during normal operation

Chattering: You may wonder why we don’t just add really huge relief valves with huge orifices to
be extra safe and to avoid a lot of designer’s grief. One reason is to save money, of course, because
bigger valves cost money and also generate larger releases, which increases the size of the outlet
piping. Another reason is you need to determine these loads anyway to design a flare system. A
third issue is chattering: recall that relief valves will close after the pressure in the vessel drops. If

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Introduction to Pressure Relief Valve Design Part 3 – Sizing Orifices and Piping – Smart Process Design Chemical Engineering Blog | Smart Process Design

you have a huge relief valve, then as soon as it opens the pressure in the protected vessel will drop
rapidly and the valve will slam shut. If you have the overpressure cause happening again and again,
then the valve will keep opening, spewing all the fluid, and slamming shut. It wrecks the valve. You
would rather have the valve smoothly open and gradually close. I think pilot valves can help in
some cases of chattering.

Multiple relief valves: Sometimes several relief valves are a good idea. Why? Maybe it is too
expensive to get one giant relief valve, but you can buy two smaller valves that together provide the
orifice area to do the job. In some cases you have two relief scenarios at vastly different flowrates:
you can buy two relief vales, set the small valve to open first to deal with the small scenario, and
the big relief valve to open at a slightly higher pressure (so that if the small valve can’t cut it, the
pressure rises more, and the big valve steps in to save the day). That way when you get the small
relief scenario the small valve handles it, and you don’t have some huge valve experiencing
dangerous chattering.

Offline valves/maintenance: Normally it is OK to have one valve, or one set of valves for
service. It is nice if the relief valve inspection schedule syncs with the equipment maintenance
schedule. If not, normally a careful procedure can be followed where the relief valve is quickly
serviced while the pressure in the vessel is carefully watched and someone is ready to take manual
action in the event of a high pressure. In some critical services people like to have sparing of relief
valves with a valve kept “offline.” Or maybe if two relief valves are called for in the design, have
three valves with one kept offline. Do not have the offline valve in service with the other valve(s)
because then you risk chattering

Boilers: They have special rules. Check ASME I or whatever the appropriate standard is for you.

Revamp projects: Whenever a process is modified the relief valves have to be checked to make
sure they can still be used. In big modifications, it becomes a large exercise to see what can be
reused. (Sometimes the company will invest in fancy dynamic simulators and other tools, and find
that the design margin in the original calculations was so high that the old relief valve can be
reused. This is a big savings). Often in these cases the hard part of the exercise can be gathering
the data: finding the original datasheets and calculations where available for valves and vessels,
learning the layout, waiting for the records guy to get back to you, etc. The actual calculation may
be easy

Relief valves in equipment packages: Sometimes vendors can design relief valves for you. For
example, vendors selling a pressure reducing valve or a chemical injection system may have relief
valves perfectly customized to suit the equipment. This can save you time and heart ache

Relief valve vendors: Are quite knowledgeable. Ask for their help and advice. Ask about things
like balanced and pilot relief valves if you are worried about back pressure, chattering, etc.

Edit 2010-04-22: Minor rewrite for clarity, added note on offline valves/maintenance.

This closes the introduction. Return to Part 1 here or Part 2 here. More topics and advice may come
in subsequent posts.

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Related posts:

1. Introduction to Pressure Relief Valve Design Part 1 – Types & Set Pressure

2. Introduction to Pressure Relief Valve Design Part 2 – Relief Scenarios and the Relief

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Introduction to Pressure Relief Valve Design Part 3 – Sizing Orifices and Piping – Smart Process Design Chemical Engineering Blog | Smart Process Design

Rate

3. Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID) Designer Checklist

4. Determine Pressure Drop in Straight Pipe

5. Introduction to TRIZ: Brainstorm Design Problems by Avoiding Trade-Offs

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from → Relief (Valves, Scenarios)

2 Responses leave one →

reducing valve PERMALINK 2009 DECEMBER 9

Thanks much for that useful post.

REPLY

John S PERMALINK 2010 JUNE 1

Thank you, this has cleared up a lot of confusion I had regarding relief systems.

REPLY

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Introduction to Pressure Relief Valve Design Part 3 – Sizing Orifices and Piping – Smart Process Design Chemical Engineering Blog | Smart Process Design

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