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Equal Percentage Control Valves and Applications

April 26, 2013

Far too often, equal percentage control valves are found in applications where linear control
valves should have been used. This article explains equal percentage control valves and sets
guidelines for their use.

What is an Equal Percentage Control Valve?

The relationship between valve stem position and the flow rate through a control valve is
described by a curve called the valve’s flow characteristic curve, or simply the valve
characteristic. An equal percentage flow characteristic is a nonlinear curve of which the slope
increases as the valve opens, while a linear flow characteristic is a straight line (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Equal percentage and linear
flow characteristics.

Control valves manipulate the rate of liquid/gas flow through them by altering the open area
through which the liquid/gas passes. Linear valves increase the open area linearly with valve
travel, while equal percentage valves open progressively more area with valve travel (Figure
2).

Figure 2. Port shapes of linear and equal

percentage valves.

Why do we need Equal Percentage Valves?

PID controllers are linear devices and for optimal performance, the process should behave
linearly too. That is, if the controller output changes from 10% to 20%, the process should
respond just as much as it would if the controller output changes from 80% to 90%. From this
requirement, it seems that linear control valves should be sufficient.

However, up to now we have been talking about the inherent/design flow characteristic of
control valves. This is the flow characteristic that a valve exhibits if the pressure difference
across it remains constant throughout its operating range. But in practice this is often not the
case. The pressure difference across a valve is often a function of flow, and it changes with
valve position. Consequently, the inherent flow characteristic is often distorted by the process
and we refer to the resulting curve as the installed valve characteristic.

So we have to refine our linearity requirement to reflect the installed valve characteristic.
Sometimes we need to use a control valve with an equal percentage inherent characteristic to
obtain a linear installed characteristic. Two distinctly different scenarios follow.

Scenario 1a
Consider a centrifugal pump for providing pressure, and a control valve for controlling the
flow (Figure 3). As the pump delivers more flow, its capability for generating pressure
decreases. Therefore the pressure differential across the control valve is high at low flow rates;
and it is low at high flow rates. An equal percentage valve can offset this change in differential
pressure to exhibit a more linear installed characteristic.

Figure 3. Simple flow control loop with

centrifugal pump.

Scenario 1b

However, we can’t just assume that because we have a centrifugal pump, we need an equal
percentage valve. If the system pressure (backpressure) downstream of the valve remains
high, for example when pumping into a pressurized system, the pump will likely stay high on
its curve, and the pressure across the control valve will not change appreciably. In this case a
linear valve might be a better choice.

If we consider the pressure differential across the valve versus flow, we can make the right
choice in Scenarios 1a and 1b. If the pressure differential remains reasonably constant, a
linear valve is required (but please read Scenario 2 below). If the pressure differential drops
by more than 50%, equal percentage can provide better linearity. To remove the guesswork,
use valve-sizing software. The software should allow you to specify a few pressure-differential
versus flow points and based on that, it will recommend the best valve for the application.

Scenario 2

Let’s consider a steam-condensing heat exchanger (Figure 4). The pressure upstream of the
valve is kept constant by the boiler and steam pressure controller. The pressure downstream
of the valve is determined by the condensate temperature, which is roughly equal to the outlet
temperature, which is controlled to a constant setpoint.
Figure 4. Steam-condensing heat
exchanger.

In other words, the pressure differential across the steam control valve remains relatively
constant, regardless of the flow. Should we then use a linear valve. Well, we should actually
use ratio control in which we control the steam flow rate as a ratio of the process flow rate and
use a linear valve, but that is another story. Most heat exchanger control designs are as simple
as shown in Figure 4.

Even though the constant differential pressure across the valve calls for a linear control valve,
this process calls for an equal percentage valve. At low process flow rates, the outlet
temperature is very sensitive to changes in steam flow. At high process flow rates, the steam
flow must be changed much more to affect the heater outlet temperature to the same degree.
This can be accomplished by using an equal percentage control valve. At small valve openings,
the valve sensitivity is very low, which cancels the high sensitivity of the process. The valve
sensitivity increases as the valve opens more – which is exactly what is required because the
sensitivity of our heat exchanger decreases with increased process flow rates.

Conclusion

An equal percentage control valve should be used when the pressure differential across the
valve decreases with increases in flow rate. Valve sizing software should be able to find the
right valve characteristic for the job. Also, equal percentage control valves should be used in
control loops of which the process gain decreases with increases in flow rate. If none of these
conditions apply, the loop is likely better off with a linear control valve.

Stay tuned!

Jacques Smuts
Principal consultant of OptiControls, and author of Process Control for Practitioners.

Posted in 5. Control Valves

5 Responses to “Equal Percentage Control Valves and

Applications”
Donald:
January 29, 2015 at 1:58 pm

Thank you for this great post. In your 2nd scenario, let’s say we initially installed an
equal-percentage valve and outputted directly to it from the TC. Later, we decide to
convert it to a cascade loop with a flow controller as the secondary, but the valve is still
equal-percentage. Does this mean we have just created a rather nonlinear process out of
a linear one? If so, that sure sounds like an easy mistake to make!

Jacques:
February 1, 2015 at 10:51 am

Donald – Yes you are correct. Enclosing the equal-percentage valve in a cascaded flow
control loop creates a linear relationship between the temperature controller’s output
and steam flow rate. Then the process’ inherent nonlinearity is not being canceled,
 creating a nonlinear control loop. As you say, this is an easy mistake to make. However,
most facilities rarely use cascade control (even where it can be beneficial).

Miguel:
May 1, 2015 at 1:19 pm

Donald, if your TC has the capability of adding an f(x) function generator, your steam
flow controller can control the Equal Percentage (EP) valve AS IF it was a Linear valve.
i.e.: x,y data pairs would input flow demand & output position demand; this data can be
calc’d, but since your proposal already includes an FT it’s better to use online testing. That
way, the flow controller will be linear at every flow.
Then to recover the benefit of an EP valve (low change in flow demand at low “Process
flow” rates; high change at high rates) you can add one more f(x) to the flow setpoint calc.
(between the 2 cascaded loops). This set of x,y pairs would mimic the curve of an EP
valve, thus treating the downstream flow controller & valve AS IF it were a complex EP
valve, yet retaining the benefit of a fast flow controller to overcome unexpected system
non-linearities and upsets (e.g.: valve wear, temporary change in steam supply pressure).

Atif:
July 24, 2018 at 1:27 am

Can some one explain as to which one is better . Equal percentage characteristics through
a valve or obtaining it through an actuator ? This is for cooling application in a fan coil
unit.

Jacques:
July 24, 2018 at 3:14 pm

Atif – It is better to have a valve with the desired characteristic. If you use a positioner to
imitate an equal percentage characteristic you’ll find that it cannot provide the small flow
resolution at the low end because of the limited mechanical resolution of the valve.

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