Control Valve Application Tools

This book is based on control valve training presentations that I gave a variety of engineers and instrument technicians over the past 25 years. In my years of applying control valves and teaching others to do the same, I gained a pretty good idea of what a person who deals with control valves needs to understand and how to best explain it to others.

This book is not intended to duplicate the several very good books on control valves, the most notable of which is the Fisher Control Valve Handbook which gives a little bit about everything there is to know about control valves. My book gives in depth detail about the key things a person who applies or otherwise deals with control valves needs a clear understanding of.

I have included in the PDF below a preview of the book, including the table of contents, so that a prospective buyer can get an idea of its scope and type of content.

Topics include:

  -How to properly size and select a control valve

  -Selecting the right valve flow characteristic to match the process

  -Control valve installed characteristics and installed gain

  -Behavior of both gas flow and liquid flow in control valves.

  - Prediction and reduction of cavitation damage in liquid applications

   -Impact of the control valve on undesired process variability

   -Control valve performance recommendations

Valin Corporation, my former employer, is the publisher and only distributor of the book. It can be purchased from Valin's website by clicking here.



The material in this book is based on Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentations that I have presented over the years to a broad range of engineers and technicians. The content of this book consists of slide images along with detailed explanatory text.

Topics include:

-Review of engineering mathematics as it applies to process dynamics including the Laplace transform.

-An overview of process dynamics including a discussion of transfer functions.

-An introduction to PID control and a comparison of loop tuning methods.

The book can be downloaded for free from the link below.

If you want a printed copy of the book, It can be purchased from Lulu's website by Clicking here.

I have found the Neles "Flow Control Manual" to be an invaluable source of information on the application of control valves and recommend it as reading and reference material to anyone who is seriously involved In the use or application of control valves.

The chapters in the book are:

1  INTRODUCTION TO PIPELINE FLOW

2  CONTROL VALVE INSTALLED PERFORMANCE

3  LIQUID FLOW

4  GAS AND STEAM FLOW

5  MULTI-PHASE FLOW

6  MATHEMATICAL SIMULATION OF CONROL VALVE BEHAVIOUR

Plus appendices containing useful reference material.

The Flow Control Manual can be downloaded at no charge from:

https://valveproducts.neles.com/documents/softwarepackages/nelprof/FlowControl_manual.pdf

This is an excellent book published by the ISA covering a broad range of control valve related topics. It consists of 23 chapters written by a number of respected control valve experts.

Here is a list of the chapters that are included:

1.   Introduction to Control Valves

2.   The History of Control Valves

3.  Terminology

4.  Valve Bodies

5.   Control Valve Actuators

6.   Sizing

7.   Cavitation and Flashing

8.   Control Valve Noise

9.   Control Valve Trim

10. Control Valve Features 

11. Materials for Control Valves

12. Control Valve Applications

13. Safety

14. Control Valve Selection

15. Accessories

16. Installation

17. Control Valve Troubleshooting

18. Case Histories

19. Maintenance

20. Control Valve Testing

21. Codes and Standards

                                                                                                              22. Computerized Control Valve Sizing

                                                                                                              23. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Regulators

This book can be purchased from the ISA web site at:

https://www.isa.org/store/control-valves/116107

ISA publications are available at a discount to ISA members

http://www.isa.org

Metso Automation's Nelprof 6 control valve selection software is my favorite control valve sizing software. There are several reasons for this:  

-  First of all, when I was at Metso, I was a member of the Nelprof design team. I have used the various versions of Nelprof on a daily basis for over 20 years and have always liked using it.

-  Unlike many valve manufacturer supplied valve sizing programs that only support valves of that manufacturer, Nelprof also includes generic data files for most of the common control valve styles.

-  I  am only aware of two control valve sizing programs besides Metso's Nelprof that can produce installed gain graphs which can give a great deal of insight as to how well a particular valve will be able to control a particular process. I talk about this in a couple of the links in the “Links” page and in considerable detail in my book Control Valve Application Technology. One of the other programs is used by a major control valve manufacturer, but the last time I checked was not being made available outside of that company. The other is a very good commercial software that, at least by my standards, is fairly expensive to purchase.

Because the Nelprof program has so many features it can take quite a while for one to become familiar with them all. If you will take the time to read this booklet (free download below) it will significantly improve your experience with Nelprof.

The valve sizing worksheets available for free download on the Worksheets page can also graph installed characteristics and gain.