Relief valve testing study

Technical Report · Mon Nov 26 04:00:00 EST 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/807511· OSTI ID:807511

BROMM, R D ^[1]

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1. FH

Reclosing pressure-actuated valves, commonly called relief valves, are designed to relieve system pressure once it reaches the set point of the valve. They generally operate either proportional to the differential between their set pressure and the system pressure (gradual lift) or by rapidly opening fully when the set pressure is reached (pop action). A pop action valve allows the maximum fluid flow through the valve when the set pressure is reached. A gradual lift valve allows fluid flow in proportion to how much the system pressure has exceeded the set pressure of the valve (in the case of pressure relief) or has decreased below the set pressure (vacuum relief). These valves are used to protect systems from over and under pressurization. They are used on boilers, pressure vessels, piping systems and vacuum systems to prevent catastrophic failures of these systems, which can happen if they are under or over pressurized beyond the material tolerances. The construction of these valves ranges from extreme precision of less than a psi tolerance and a very short lifetime to extremely robust construction such as those used on historic railroad steam engines that are designed operate many times a day without changing their set pressure when the engines are operating. Relief valves can be designed to be immune to the effects of back pressure or to be vulnerable to it. Which type of valve to use depends upon the design requirements of the system.

• Research Organization: FH (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-96RL13200
• OSTI ID: 807511
• Report Number(s): HNF-8390, Rev.0; EDT-627047
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
DESIGN
FLUID FLOW
GRADUAL LIFT
HANFORD RESERVATION
OPERATION
POP ACTION
PRESSURE RELIEF
RELIEF VALVE
RELIEF VALVES
STUDY
TEST
USES
VACUUM RELIEF