What’s orifice valves and what’s used for?

Orifice valve is a type of flow metering throttling device which can measure all single-phase fluid including water, air, steam, oil, etc., has been widely used in power plants, chemical plants, oil fields and natural gas pipelines. Its working principle is that when the fluid with certain pressure flows through the orifice part in the pipeline, the locally contracts flow rate increases and the pressure decreases, resulting in the differential pressure. The greater the fluid flow velocity, the greater the differential pressure. There is a definite functional relationship between them and the fluid flow can be obtained by measuring the differential pressure.

Orifice flow system consists of an orifice throttling device, transmitter and flows computer. The flowrate measurement range of orifice flowmeter can be extended or transferred by adjusting the orifice opening diameter or the range of the transmitter within a certain range that can reach 100:1. It is widely used in situations with a large range of flow variations and can also calculate the bidirectional measurement of fluid.

Advantages and disadvantages of orifice valves

Advantages:

• The throttling parts need not be calibrated, accurate measurement and the calibration measurement accuracy can be 0.5;
• Simple and compact structure, small size and lightweight;
• Wide application, including all single-phase fluid (liquid, gas, steam) and partial multi-phase flow;
• The orifice plate with different apertures can be changed continuously with the change of flow rate and can be checked and replaced online.

Disadvantages：

• There are requirements for the length of the straight pipe section, generally more than 10D;
• Non-recoverable pressure drop and high energy consumption;
• Flange connection is prone to leakage, which increases maintenance cost;
• The orifice plate is sensitive to corrosion, wear and dirt, and may fail in the short term to heating water and gas (deviation with actual value)

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