Control Valve Pressure Drop

• How to determine process conditions needed for a control valve vendor to size a control valve

When you go out to a control valve vendor for valve sizing, you need to provide information in order for them to:

• Provide a valve that can control the flow at the Min, Max and Normal conditions
• Ensure the valve will not be damaged by cavitation or vibration
• Provide an actuator that is large enough to move the valve at all conditions.

The article is not about assigning control valve pressure drop to a new pump. If there is a pump, this article assumes that a pump has already been selected.

This is about determining the ΔP across a control valve at various conditions, so that the valve can be selected by control valve vendors.

More specifically, the P1 (upstream) and P2 (downstream) pressures must be given to the control valve vendors.

References