Rotatable Orifice Plate Choke Valve for Erosion Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Choke valves in hydrocarbon production systems experience wear due to fluid properties, leading to costly repairs and reduced hydrocarbon recovery, as internal components like orifice plates erode over time.
Innovation Solution
A choke valve design featuring a rotatable orifice plate with equi-incremental phase regions and chamfered edges, along with a guide vane, allows for controlled fluid flow adjustments, reducing wear by incremental opening and closing of apertures, and optimizing flow characteristics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of moving object
If traditional choke valve orifice plates are used, then fluid flow control is achieved, but component wear and erosion occur leading to reduced lifespan
Solution Approach 1:
The orifice plate is made rotatable to dynamically adjust the aperture opening area by rotating to different positions, allowing the flow control characteristics to be optimized and reducing localized erosion that occurs with fixed orifice plates
Solution Approach 2:
The ability to rotate the orifice plate enables periodic adjustment of the aperture configuration, allowing operators to alternate between different aperture positions to distribute wear more evenly across the component surface over time
2Productivity
If the orifice plate aperture is opened wider to increase flow rate, then productivity improves, but wear and erosion increase
Solution Approach 1:
The rotatable orifice plate provides dynamic control of the aperture opening area, enabling precise adjustment of flow rate while maintaining optimal flow characteristics that reduce turbulent erosion compared to fully open fixed configurations
3Reliability
If the orifice plate is made thicker to resist erosion, then reliability improves, but the aperture opening area decreases reducing flow capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The solution moves from addressing erosion resistance purely in the thickness dimension to utilizing the rotational dimension, allowing a thinner orifice plate to achieve equivalent or superior erosion resistance through position adjustment while maintaining higher flow capacity
Data Source
AI summary
A choke valve and a method of operation of the choke valve in which the choke valve includes an orifice plate and/or a guide vane to control a flow of fluid though the choke valve, the orifice plate defining a center point and being rotatable about a center axis extending longitudinally through the center point; the orifice plate defining at least one aperture including a first aperture, the first aperture defining at least a first equi-incremental phase region, the first aperture being spaced away from the center point of the orifice plate; and rotation of the orifice plate with respect to the center point effecting an incremental and staged transitioning of the orifice plates among a plurality of open states.