3 way valve
Can anyone tell me how the DP across the two ports of a 3 way valve affects its control.
This
3 way valve either lets glycerine flow through an exchanger or bypasses
it. The dp designed in direction of the exchanger is 0,5bar and towards
the byapss its 0,3bar.
We are trying to maintain a constant
outlet temperature from the exchanger. The valve will divert feed
around the exchanger to control this. Presumably there is a constant
feed through the other side of the exchanger. The amount diverted will
depend on the setpoint of the controller which will regulate within the
possible limits of temperature.
I can only think that the DP is there
for the actuator sizing. The DP across a valve will depend on the flow
rate so I'm not sure what basis the DP figures have. These DP figures
should not have anything to do with the control as the control is only
based on maintaining the temperature.
Having said all this my concern
is that the flow will always tend to go where there is less DP, so the
valve will either fuly close or fully open and not regulate smoothly.
Are you talking about a 3way ball valve? If so this type valve is NOT a control device. The valve is designed to change flow direction only. The valve port through the ball is the same a 90 degree elbow in a pipe system. This type valve should be stroked fully i.e. full 90 degree rotation to switch flow direction. This valve is not for modulating service.
Respectully disagree with cliff. 3-way ball valves are not universally
wonderful, but no choice is. However they can be useful in temp-control
bypass application such as this.
Regardless
of the type of valve you choose, you have the choice on a bypass temp
control application to use the valve for diverting (installed upstream
of the HX, or mixing (installed downstream of the HX.
The leg that goes thru the HX has more pressure drop due to the toruous path thru the fins, coils, fittings, etc.
It
is frequently useful to install a balancing valve in the bypass leg,
throttled down so that causes the same resistance as the heat
exchanger. Usually the balancing valve is manual, tweaked until the
system stabilizes, and then locked in position.
Another pitfall
if temperature control is if the desired temperature is really close to
either the outlet temperature of the Heat Exchanger or the bypass
temperature. if that is the case you wind up controlling at one of the
extremes of the valve's span and like any control loop that gives really
unstable results.
So if, for example, the fluid coming down
the pipe is at 50 degrees. and the fluid coming out of the HX is at 150
degrees, and you want to control at 100 degrees, a three-way valve will
work pretty well.
If you try to control the same system so its
outlet temp setpoint is at 148 degrees, then you just have a trickle
coming thru the bypass and a tiny control signal change gives you a
drastic change in outlet temp. In this case it would be beneficial to
install a relatively large valve on the 150 degree leg, a much smaller
valve on the bypass leg which operates in the reverse direction of the
other valve, and operate them with the same control signal.
Back
to the ball valves: A 90-degree 3-way ball valve has linear
characteristic for the middle 60% of its stroke. With approprite
selection of the other components in its system(valve size, actuator,
positioner, zero-lash coupling) it can do a pretty good job. 3-way
globe valves are generally just two unbalanced valve plugs in a common
body, contoured to be linear throughout their stroke. So on the sucky
control scale
they are only marginally better than possible with a ball valve, harder
to plumb, bigger for a given pipe size, and massively more
expensive. Big advantage with a globe valve is that it is more likely
to be able to tolerate higher temperatures, but unlikely to shut off
either port completely if desired. (Metal seats) Ball valves (usually)
have polymeric seats.
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