A Comparative Study of Control Valves for Quality Assurance in Improving Oil–Water Flow Separation Efficiency

Control valves are critical components in the oil and gas industry, as they regulate the flow parameters in the downstream separation processes. The design and performance of these control valves are essential to maintaining the flow quality of the multiphase mixture downstream. However, the complex geometry of control valves results in the generation of high shear forces and turbulence, causing strong emulsion to form, which can make the separation difficult and increase the time, resources, and chemical additives required for the process. The present study used computational fluid dynamics to analyse and compare the shear performance of four types of control valves namely, a globe valve, an angle valve, an off-line valve, and a z-type valve. The valves are fitted with the same standard high friction (HF) trim with a designed flow capacity (Cv) of 90 at 100% valve opening. The effect of geometric features on the distribution of pressure, velocity and volume fraction has been enumerated. A mixing coefficient (MC) has been used to quantify oil distribution and separation performance based on the in-situ properties of each of the valves studied. The results show that the z-type valve provides the lowest pressure drop and highest flow capacity while the globe valve provides high separation performance amongst all the valves studied.