Tezislər / Theses

THE 3
rd
 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCES OF STUDENTS AND YOUNG RESEARCHERS 
dedicated to the 99
th
anniversary of the National Leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev
267
IDENTIFICATION OF SAFE PROCESS CONDITIONS TO AVOID 
CAVITATION AND FLASHING IN PRESSURE CONTROL LOOP 
AT BHOS EMERSON TEST RIG 
Laman Hasanli 
Baku Higher Oil School 
Baku, Azerbaijan 
[e-mail] 
Supervisor: Ph.D, Associate Professor Erkin Ibragimov
Keywords:
Cavitation, Flashing, Pressure measurement, Vapor pressure, Vena contracta 
In the modern world, the oil and gas industry has a crucial role in the 
energy sector, so in worldwide trade. Control valves are widely used in 
pressure, level, flow measurements in the different parts of the oil and natural 
gas sector, such as upstream, midstream, and downstream. One of the most 
crucial objectives in this industry is to minimize personnel injury, exposure 
and any threat to equipment life.
Cavitation and flashing inside valves can cause significant destruction in 
any valve itself, the downstream parts connected, and related equipment given 
enough time. Performance deterioration, mechanical damage, especially on 
plug and cage of valve, noise, and vibration are caused by cavitation. This 
damage looks like dull, dark and grainy. Flashing can also cause severe 
destruction on surfaces, mostly in the form of erosion of the valve plug, 
appearing
shiny and scalloped [1]. Although
cavitation damage looks very 
different compared to flashing, the result is the same: loss of throttling and shut-
off capability, ultimately lead to pump failure. Therefore, flashing and cavitation 
should be handled during valve sizing procedure. Throughout this research 
paper, safe process conditions have been investigated by reviewing cavitation 
and flashing phenomenon, control valves, variable frequency drive [2].
It is important to know both the fluid properties (such as vapor pressure) 
and the system properties (such as process pressure and temperature) to 
understand whether there is a potential condition for cavitation or flashing, 
which can cause significant valve damage, even with clean fluids that do not 
contain any solids. In order to predict and establish safe conditions to safely 
operate the control valve without cavitation and flashing effects, some 
calculations were made [3].
Proper technologies have been identified for further investigation. The 
simulation has been performed on changing of the process parameters for 
Fisher EZ control valve. Various parameters to determine the safe conditions 
were examined by means of Fisher software. Based on the principle of 
differential pressure measurement, it has been likely to achieve desired safe 
process circumstances to avoid cavitation and flashing in pressure control loop. 

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