Critical flow, safety-relief

Six-tenths factor, 47 Yearly cost indices, 47 Critical flow, safety-relief, 438 Back pressure, 440 Sonic flow, 438 Critical flow, see Sonic Cyclone separators, 259-269 Design, 260-265 Efficiency chart, 263 Hydroclones, 265-267 Pressure drop, 263, 264 Scrubber, 269 Webre design, 265 Deflagration venting nomographs,... 

Sonic flow, safety relief, 438 Rupture disk, 460, 461 Sub-sonic flow, 461 Sonic or critical flow, 115, 125 Calculations, 125 Velocity, 126 Specific speed, 194-197 Impeller designs, 194 Upper limits, chart, 195-197 Specifications,... 

As normally designed, vapor flow through a typical high-lift safety reliefs valve is characterized by limiting sonic velocity and critical flow pressure conditions at the orifice (nozzle throat), and for a given orifice size and gas composition, mass flow is directly proportional to the absolute upstream pressure. 

Sizing, safety relief, 436, 437-441 API liquid valve, 444 Balanced valves, 441 Conventional valves, 438 Critical back pressure, 440 Effects of two-phase flow, 437 Hydraulic expansion, 441 Rupture disks, 434 Sub-critical flow, 449 Slurry flow, process pipe, 142-147 Regimes, 143... 

Pressure relief valves are a critical safety item in almost all process facilities. Pressure relief valves simply must work. This means that they must never be blocked in from the equipment item(s) that they are protecting. Yet their very criticality means that relief valves will have to be routinely isolated and/or removed from the system that they are protecting so that they can be maintained and tested— both for the pressure at which they open and, more rarely, for their flow capacity. 

Example 7.4 Dimensioning of a safety valve for pressure relief with two-phase flow—critical (choked) discharge. 

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