Figure 3.

A technician installs an accelerometer on a

globe valve with noise trim and vent diffuser to convert
vibration to noise. All graphics courtesy of Emerson
Automation Solutions

VALVES & ACTUATORS

Analyzing vibration in and

around control valves
Vibration near a control valve installation can
originate from many sources. Here’s how to
pinpoint problems and provide solutions.

Julian Mann

Excessive vibration can cause damage to a

control valve, measurement equipment and
the piping system. Plants often try to fix
problems by measuring vibration, moving
equipment, stiffening the valve structure,
rewelding broken pipes, changing the piping
system and other remedies — only to find
problems still exist.

This is because it is often difficult to find the

source of the vibration, which can originate
not only with the control valve, but also with
upstream and downstream piping and
equipment.

This article will discuss modern techniques

to help monitor, predict and solve problems
caused by vibration in the vicinity of control
valves.

Figure 1. Control valve vibration caused this valve stem

to break.

All graphics courtesy of Emerson Automation Solutions

Figure 1. Control valve vibration caused this

valve stem to break.

Vibration sources

Vibration experienced in control valve

installations can be caused by pump
cavitation, flow pulsation, flow-induced
excitations, vortex shedding, rapid valve
closure, vapor pocket collapse, pump startup
and shutdown, slug flow, water hammer and
many other hard-to-diagnose conditions.

For example, the valve plug can vibrate and

cause damage to the cage, or it can cause a
fatigue failure such as the stem breaking
where it is connected to the plug. The results
of the cage damage can be higher friction and
thus poor valve assembly performance. If the
valve stem breaks, the valve ceases to
function.

In some cases, valves and piping can shake

so badly that workers are afraid to go near
the system for fear the piping will burst. In
other cases, the valve noise generated is
excessive.

Two common types of vibration are

associated with control valve installations.
Acoustically induced vibration (AIV)
generates excessive levels of high-frequency
acoustic energy that can cause fatigue failure
of welded downstream connectors. This is
often seen in liquid natural gas emergency
blowdown systems, but is also found in other
process piping systems. The noise levels
generated by the valve and other piping
elements are high enough to cause damaging
vibration to the piping system.

Flow-induced vibration (FIV) generates high

levels of kinetic energy that can cause piping
vibration, loosen piping supports and cause
fatigue failure at piping branches (see Figure
2).

Excessive vibration can damage a control

valve’s accessories, such as mounting
brackets, actuator tubing, transmitters and
actuators. Actuator tubing can suffer fatigue
failures at or near the nut/ferrule location,
causing pressure to be lost in the tubing.
Without pressure in the tubing, the actuator
cannot be controlled and/or pressure signals
between control components are lost. In
either case, the valve ceases to function as
designed.

Vibration can also cause fatigue failures in

nearby measurement components, such as
pressure or temperature instruments
installed in the downstream or upstream
piping. This vibration can damage an
instrument or degrade the instrument’s
connection to the piping. Damage to an
instrument can result in loss of the
measurement signal, and failure of the
connection to the piping can cause leaks.

Vibration can cause fatigue failure in piping,

especially at welds and branch locations. At
the very least, vibration is annoying because
of the noise generated. At worst, vibration
can destroy piping, cause leaks and prevent
the valve from controlling a process. In
either case, one of the most difficult
problems is determining what causes the
vibration.

Figure 2. Flow-induced vibration and acoustic-induced

vibration can break welds, loosen piping supports,
cause fatigue problems and shut down a process.

Figure 2. Flow-induced vibration and

acoustic-induced vibration can break welds,
loosen piping supports, cause fatigue
problems and shut down a process.

Measuring vibration

Vibration is measured with accelerometers

placed at various points on the valve and
actuator assembly, and upstream and
downstream of the valve. While vibration can
be measured with handheld devices, the
preferred solution is to use wireless, battery-
powered accelerometers (see Figure 3).

Older vibration sensors commonly used to

find problems in motors, pumps and other
rotating equipment that may not be suitable
for diagnosing valve vibration. These
vibration sensors often operate in the low-
frequency range of 1,000 hertz (Hz) or less,
while control valve AIV can reach levels of 3
to 5 kilohertz and even higher.

Vibration sensors are installed for two basic

reasons: First, to measure the vibration in
and around the valve and assess its severity
in various locations; second, to assess
changes and reductions in vibration after
corrective measures are taken.

In most cases, sensors are mounted on the

valve bonnet, stem connector, actuator,
and/or inlet and outlet piping. If specific
damage or high vibration occurs in one area,
a sensor is typically mounted near the area of
interest. In the case of a hot system, such as
a steam line, sensors have a mounting to
isolate the sensing element from the high
temperature.

Sensor placement may also be dictated by

acoustic measurements that identify high
noise sources. To determine if the noise
source is upstream of the valve — with noise
then propagating through the system —
sensors can be mounted upstream and
downstream of the valves, and on the valve
stem.

If the highest vibration levels are found next

to a valve, the source or cause of the noise is
most likely the valve trim components.

If the highest vibration is downstream, the

problem may be closely coupled systems,
where valves are too close to elbows and
other equipment, causing flow-induced
turbulence. Piping systems are sometimes
designed with an elbow or tee near the valve
inlet. Unfortunately, this provides a
turbulent flow into the valve, which can
result in more vibration than typical in the
valve and additional turbulence in the piping
downstream of the valve, causing excess
vibration.

Similarly, the piping may be designed where

an elbow or tee is placed directly
downstream of the valve. The flow from the
valve outlet can interact with the piping
element, causing high turbulence and
vibration. Both situations can be solved by
moving piping elements farther upstream or
downstream of the valve. In general, it is best
to keep elbows at least 20 diameters before
and 6 diameters after a valve.

A modern wireless vibration sensor provides

complete vibration data including overall
levels, energy bands, high resolution spectra
and waveforms. Some sensors can measure
vibration up to 20,000 Hz and transmit the
measured vibration data over a wireless
network to the plant’s control and
monitoring system or PC-based software for
analysis. If desired, the PC can upload data
to the cloud where it can be accessed from
any location with internet access.

One advantage of such a system is that it will

acquire data at a set interval, such as every
minute or every few hours. This allows
vibration to be measured often over a period
of several days, weeks or months. These
vibration measurements can then be trended
to reveal patterns leading to failure, allowing
corrective action to be taken beforehand.

Manual systems are handheld and require an

operator present to make the measurement,
so these measurements are typically made
much less frequently, often only when
vibration is high.

Other useful data for analyzing vibration

issues includes:

Acoustic readings from sound

Measurement sensors
Process variable measurements of flow,
pressure and temperature
General data related to adjacent
equipment and its operation
Indications that blowoff or relief valves
have opened or closed
Control system actions such as opening
and closing valves, starting and
stopping pumps, or other actions to
control a process

By analyzing vibration data and looking for

correlations between vibration and changing
process conditions, engineers can identify
the root cause of the vibration.

Figure 4. A plot of vibration and sound level over time,

when compared with process changes — such as
opening and closing a valve — can identify the source
of excessive vibration.

Figure 4. A plot of vibration and sound level

over time, when compared with process
changes — such as opening and closing a
valve — can identify the source of excessive
vibration.

Analyzing the data

Data from the vibration sensors can be sent

to a process plant’s control and monitoring
system, but analysis can be difficult because
it often requires a high level of expertise,
along with specialized training and tools, to
extract usable information from the data.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a

software tool used to predict fluid behavior.
CFD cannot predict the acoustic field in the
piping system at AIV frequencies. While
these software programs may offer the
option to perform predictive maintenance,
the results typically compare poorly to the
actual acoustic field as measured by sensors.

A better solution than CFD or analysis by

operators viewing control and monitoring
system screens is specialty analysis software,
which cuts through the complexity of
vibration analysis to provide a simple,
reliable indication of equipment health via a
single trend. One such software filters out
traditional vibration signals to focus on
impacting, a better indicator of overall asset
health. Using the software, vibration data is
analyzed for frequencies, amplitudes of
displacement, velocity and acceleration, and
characteristics of the vibration and changes
in the vibration over time.

For example, the software looks for peaks in

the frequency spectrum. Peaks are
indications of resonance in the response of a
system that is excited, or the excitation being
generated at a tone.

An example of the excitation being generated

at tones, a compressor will likely create a
signal at a set of frequencies, so response at
those frequencies indicates response to the
input. If the excitation is turbulence, and a
peak in the measured vibration is present,
that would be an indication of a resonance. If
the vibration is broad, it is an indication of
an area of strong turbulence in the flow.
Mitigation actions are different depending
on the type of excitation and response, so it
is important to identify problems precisely.

If vibration levels increase over time, this

indicates a change in the system. Plant
personnel can use this information to explore
changes in process settings to reduce
vibration to an acceptable level. They may
also be able to identify high vibration levels
for a set of process conditions and limit the
time the process runs with settings causing
these conditions.
An increase in vibration can also indicate an
imminent or present structural failure. The
software combined with knowledge of the
system can reveal these types of failures and
distinguish them from other failure modes
(see Figure 4).

Plots of vibration intensities and sound level

over time for the sensors in Figure 1 showed
sudden amplitude increases associated with
process changes.

In another case, when investigating the

reason for damage to actuator tubing,
analysis showed a direct correlation between
a calculated indicator and process pressure.
When the indicator reached a maximum
value, the tubing failed.

Figure 5. Emerson installed wireless vibration sensors

on this steam let-down system to analyze the causes of
vibration that were causing crack failures.

Figure 5. Emerson installed wireless

vibration sensors on this steam let-down
system to analyze the causes of vibration that
were causing crack failures.

Solving a steam let-down system

vibration problem

An ethanol plant in Minnesota had been

plagued by vibration problems for years in a
steam let-down system (see Figure 5) that
affected the valve, piping, diffuser and steam
header. The let-down system reduced steam
pressure from 125 psig to 12 to 14 psig, prior
to flow into a steam diffuser.

Specific problems included repeated weld

and component failures on or around the
steam diffuser that were plaguing the plant
and causing unplanned downtime. Repairs to
the diffuser cost $70,000, valve repairs cost
$28,000 and installing steam separators cost
$60,000. And every time the system had to
be shut down for repairs, it cost the company
$100,000 in lost production.

The plant changed the diffuser, tried

different materials, moved the valve farther
away from the diffuser, and called in
consultants. Nothing worked. Independent
vibration analyses indicated high vibration
levels but did not identify causes.

Although the valve was not a Fisher valve,

Emerson sent in engineers to measure
vibration and analyze the problem. They
installed wireless vibration sensors upstream
and downstream of the valve, and on the
valve and actuator. Correlating vibration
data, operational information and historian
data showed that the problem was not being
caused by the valve, but was instead directly
related to process changes.

Specifically, the diffuser was oversized,

which caused excessive pressure drops. This
correlation was found by examining the data
from the vibration sensors and operating
data from the diffuser.

Summary

Excessive vibration can damage valves,

actuators and piping. Although sensors can
measure vibration, locating the root cause of
problems can be difficult. What is needed in
many cases is specialty software to analyze
the vibration, process data and extensive
domain expertise to correlate vibration data
with process conditions. If this expertise is
not available in-house, external experts can
often provide the required assistance.

Julian Mann is a principal engineer at

Emerson for its flow controls products. He
holds a Bachelor of Science in engineering
science from Iowa State University and a
Ph.D. in acoustics from Penn State. Prior to
working at Emerson, Mann was an
associate professor and assistant dean at
Iowa State.

Shawn Anderson is an engineering

specialist at Emerson. He has a Bachelor of
Science in mechanical engineering from
Milwaukee School of Engineering. Anderson
leads a team focused on next-generation
diagnostics, prognostics and controls for its
flow controls products.

About the Author

Julian Mann
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