BOSfluids

Tutorial
Valve closure and transient
pressure wave (part 3)

The “Valve closure and transient pressure wave” is a 3 part tutorial.

Part 3 describes the procedure to correctly model valve closures in
piping systems.
 BOSfluids Valve Closure and Transient Pressure Wave Part 3

1. INTRODUCTION
The third part of this tutorial is meant as an overview of the analysis procedure followed in
the first two parts of the tutorial and gives a general approach for a common BOSfluids®
analysis. In this tutorial no BOSfluids model needs to be created.

2. GENERAL ANALYSIS APPROACH

When performing a fluid analysis the user will typically know the pressure at one point in
the system and the intended flow rate. The flow rate is usually the controlled quantity from
a process point-of-view. Flow rate is also directly proportional to velocity which is directly
proportional to the pressure rise that occurs when a valve closes. For this reason an accurate
description of the flow rate is important.

Specifying a fixed flow rate is one way to insure that a given volume of fluid moves through
the pipe, but the flow rate does not remain fixed when a valve closes. If a fixed flow rate is
specified and a valve is closed, BOSfluids will continue to insert fluid into the closed system
causing the pressure to rise to unrealistic values. To prevent this from happening it is better
to specify pressures instead of flow rates.

For piping systems, pressures are typically given for the inlet and outlet. These pressures,
however, may be design values and are not the physical occurring values. Even if the
pressures at the inlet and outlet are given on a process diagram they are often calculated
based on some assumed friction factors or specific valve opening. Since the most significant
property is the flow rate, it is recommended to let BOSfluids calculate the pressure
difference required to produce the required flow rate.

This can be done by specifying one known pressure at either the inlet or outlet of the system
and specifying a fixed flow rate at the opposite end of the system. When a steady state
analysis is performed BOSfluids will calculate the required pressure drop over the system to
sustain the specified flow rate.

Figure 1 | Valve closure model

Copyright © Dynaflow Research Group. Page 1 of 3

 BOSfluids Valve Closure and Transient Pressure Wave Part 3

In the example of Error! Reference source not found. the outlet pressure from a boiler at
ode 5 is given as 1250 psi and the flow rate in the line is 0.7 ft3/sec. To determine the pressure
at node 140 (and throughout the rest of the system) a fixed flow boundary condition is
specified at node 140 of -0.7 ft3/sec. Note that a negative flow rate should be specified since
the flow is going out of the system at node 140, see Figure 2.

Figure 2 | A fixed Pressure boundary condition is specified at node 5 and

a Fixed Flow boundary condition is specified at node 140

A steady state analysis can now be performed to find the pressure at node 140. For the
example problem the pressure at 140 is found by BOSfluids to be 1243 psi. Hence, when a
pressure drop of 7 psi between nodes 5 and 140 is specified, the steady state flow rate would
be 0.7 ft3/sec.

It is of less importance if the found pressure at node 140 is not exactly the design pressure at
this point. It is far more important to get the correct flow rate, since the transient effects
depend on fluid velocity.

Before a transient analysis is performed, the input for node 140 should be changed from a
Fix Flow boundary condition to a Fix Pressure boundary condition with the calculated
pressure. In a next step the transient Valve Actions are specified and the analysis type is
changed to Transient.

The transient pressure rises will now be calculated accurately with the correct flow velocity
interruption. Since the transient analysis was started from the correct initial flow conditions
the pressure peaks, unbalanced loads, etc. can be used with confidence.

Page 2 of 3 Copyright © Dynaflow Research Group.

 BOSfluids Valve Closure and Transient Pressure Wave Part 3

2.1. Summary
In summary the following steps are followed in performing the transient simulation:

1. Specify the inlet design pressure at the inlet and the given flow rate at the outlet.
2. Perform a steady state analysis to find the pressure at the outlet.
3. Specify the found pressure at the outlet.
4. Specify the transient valve actions and perform the transient analysis.

3. CONCLUDING REMARKS
Before a transient calculation is started BOSfluids will always perform a steady state
calculation to determine the initial flow conditions. The steady state calculation can be a
No Flow analysis, in which case the flow rate is zero throughout the system and only the
pressure gradients based on elevation are calculated.

When there are nonlinear elements, such as pressure control valves and check valves in a
system it is a good practice to start up the transient simulation without any transient
actions. This to make sure that the steady state and transient solutions agree. The transient
case should proceed from the steady state solution with zero perturbation. If there are
any fluctuations in either the pressure or flow waveforms anywhere in the system then
there is either an imbalance in the system or an unstable condition was left from the
steady state solution. This can occur in the following instances:

1. The steady state calculation does not include any vapor formation. When the
steady state pressures are close to the vapor pressure the steady state and transient
initial conditions might differ.

2. Check valves are either open or close in a steady state calculation. Damped check
valves are not modeled in the steady state solution. BOSfluids has special routines
to keep damped check valves from violating the steady state flow solution, but
there are instances where some perturbation will emanate from a check valve,
especially when close to pumps.

3. The state of a pressure regulator valve is solved within a certain pressure range.
This range is calculated per time step so it could occur that PRV’s experience some
oscillation when going from a steady state to a non-perturbed transient solution.

4. Temperature effects are not incorporated in the steady state solution. Where
changes in temperature (and hence density) produce large pressure fluctuations
then the steady state and the transient solutions might not match.

5. When the flow conditions through pumps are far from the specified pump curve
there may be mismatch between steady state and transient solutions.

Copyright © Dynaflow Research Group. Page 3 of 3