T

he perfect valve to control your

process has been selected. The
valve will pass your maximum
flow. Everything is great, right?
In some cases digging a little deeper
might help. The control valve usually
should not be the most restrictive ele-
ment of the process, but it also should
not be oversized or have performance
issues that do not mesh well with the
process characteristics.
Typically when a valve is selected,
attention is paid to whether the valve
is the correct size by determining the
travel of the valve (openness) at sev-
eral operating points. Often these are
labeled minimum, normal and maxi-
mum. From these conditions, suitabil-
ity can be judged by seeing that cer-
tain rules of thumb are followed. For
example, guidelines may dictate that
the travel at the maximum case is not
higher than 90% and the minimum
case is not lower than, say 15% for a
given control valve. Of course, there are
also many other factors that are con-
sidered, such as cost, pressure class,
flowing temperature, fluid behavior,
presence of particulate in the fluid,
shutoff needs, and the list goes on and
on (see Part 2 of this report, pp. 3841,
for practical tips on material selection).
Yet another measure of the valve suit-
ability can aid in optimization of the
valve selection: installed gain.
There are times when examining in-
stalled gain is not as helpful as other
times. These situations will be discussed
later. However, for now, lets discuss
what installed gain is and how it relates
to the inherent flow characteristic.
Inherent flow characteristic
In order to understand installed gain,
it is helpful to start by looking at the
inherent flow characteristic of the
control valve. The inherent flow char-
acteristic has the same shape as what
many people might know as a C
v
curve.
This is what is seen when the valve-
flow-coefficient (C
v
) value of a valve is
plotted versus its travel. The inherent
flow characteristics most commonly
seen are equal percentage, linear and
quick opening or modified versions of
these (Figure 1). The definition of these
curves can be found in ISA standard
ANSI/ISA75.11.011985 (R2002).
These curves show how the capacity
of the control valve changes with re-
spect to travel. However, they do not tell
the whole story. Under certain circum-
stances, inherent flow characteristics
show you how the flowrate of the pro-
cess fluid would change with respect to
valve travel if the pressure conditions
across the valve were held constant as
the travel changed. There are also hid-
den assumptions in these cases.
For incompressible fluids, in order
for the inherent flow characteristic
to match the actual flow characteris-
tic under these conditions (constant
pressure and changing travel) the flow
through the control valve cannot be
choked and the point of incipient cavi-
tation cannot be reached at any travel.
When the incompressible fluid starts
to vaporize, the flowrate at a pres-
sure differential is no longer predicted
solely by the C
v
value. The liquid pres-
sure recovery factor, F
L
, must be used
along with C
v
when the liquid flow is
choked. It is also assumed that the
liquid density is constant over the full
range of operation.
For a compressible process fluid,
in order for the inherent character-
istic to match the flow characteristic
at constant pressure conditions, the
inlet temperature must be constant
and the pressure-drop ratio factor (x
T
)
value of the valve must stay constant
for all travels.
The full story, however, reveals that
in reality, pressure conditions across
the control valve are not constant. The
x
T
and F
L
values of control valves vary
with respect to control valve travel.
The liquid density and inlet tempera-
tures may also fluctuate.
Installed gain
The benefit of predicting installed gain
is that it allows the process and the
valve to be analyzed together over the
full range of operation. Installed gain
marries the control-valve flow char-
acteristics to the process-system pres-
sure-and-flow characteristics. In order
to control whatever process variable
is important to the system, the control
system will call on the control valve to
adjust its position accordingly. If you dig
past the controllers, transmitters, actu-
ators, and other equipment, ultimately
the valve is seeing the fluid part of the
process as a desired flowrate versus up-
stream and downstream pressures.
The other parts of the system may
express this desired flowrate as an-
Feature Report
34 CHEMCAL ENGNEERNG WWW.CHE.COM OCTOBER 2008
Feature Report
Part 1
Among other things, this analysis is helpful in
comparing one valve candidate with another and in
exposing over- and under-sized valves
Using Installed Gain
To Improve
Valve Selection
P
e
r
c
e
n
t

o
f

r
a
t
e
d

f
l
o
w

c
o
e
f
f
i
c
i
e
n
t
100
0
0 100
Percent of rated travel
Q
u
i
c
k

o
p
e
n
i
n
g
L
i
n
e
a
r
E
q
u
a
l

p
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e
Figure 1. The inherent fow charac-
teristics most commonly seen are equal
percentage, linear and quick opening or
modifed versions of these
Melissa Niesen, Emerson Process Management
other variable, say a level or a pressure
elsewhere in the process, but the inter-
nals of the control valve that touch the
fluid deal with the flowrate. No matter
what the process variable is, the control
valve is ultimately controlling the flow-
rate of the process fluid by introduc-
ing a variable restriction and, hence,
changing the pressure of the fluid.
The system as seen by the valve in-
ternals can be plotted using curves of
upstream and downstream pressure
versus the required flowrate. Assum-
ing the control valve is not undersized,
it will have one position that can ful-
fill both the flowrate and the pressure
conditions that the system requires.
Figure 2 shows a system characteris-
tic that might be found in conjunction
with a pump.
Note that the differential pressure
the valve sees in Figure 2 decreases as
the flowrate increases. This decrease in
differential pressure is due to a combi-
nation of the pump curve and the sys-
tem losses up and downstream of the
control valve. Assuming the flow is tur-
bulent, the system losses upstream and
downstream of the valve will increase
as the square of the flowrate. This
square relationship causes some of the
behavior in the system characteristic.
Creating installed gain graphs
The installed gain graph can be de-
veloped with knowledge of the system
characteristic and the inherent flow
characteristic of the control valve (de-
fined by C
v
and F
L
or x
T
coefficients
versus travel).
One way to develop the installed
gain graph is as follows:
1. Develop an installed flow charac-
teristic (Figure 3)
2. Express the installed characteris-
tic in terms of percent process vari-
able (%PV) versus percent travel
(%Travel)
3. Find the slope of the %PV versus
%Travel graph at each travel
This method is outlined in Ref. [1].
Step 1: Developing the installed-
flow-characteristic graph. In order
to evaluate the installed gain over
the full system operation, the system
characteristic graph should be known.
Three points are not enough to develop
a meaningful installed-gain graph.
Luckily, if the system configuration is
held constant (for instance, the num-
ber of pumps used is constant and the
system restrictions do not vary), this
curve should be easy to approximate.
For several increments of valve
travel, find out where on the system
curve the process will be operated and,
therefore, what the flowrate will be.
The location on the system curve can
be determined by using the equations
in the ISA/IEC valve sizing standard
ANSI/ISA-75.01.01 (IEC 60534-2-1
Mod)-2007 along with the valve coeffi-
cients (C
v
and F
L
or x
T
) at that travel.
Alternatively, computer software that
implements the ISA/IEC sizing equa-
tions may be used.
This process is iterative and can be
time consuming if done by hand. The
result is an installed characteristic
graph similar to Figure 3. Note that in
the terminology of the EnTech Speci-
fication, this graph is called the Flow
Gain (Kf).
Step 2: Expressing the flowrate in
terms of %PV. Use the span of the pro-
cess variable measurement device and
its relation to the flowrate to determine
the %PV for the installed-characteris-
tic graph points. If the process variable
is flowrate, this procedure is as simple
as dividing each flowrate by the span of
the flow meter. If the actual span of the
flow transmitter is unknown, the shape
of the installed gain curves will be in-
structive, but the numerical values will
be of less use. As will be discussed later,
the numerical values from the installed
gain graph are useful when compared
to suggested limits.
Step 3: Developing the installed
gain graph. Find the slope of the
graph from Step 2 at each travel. The
graph of %PV/%Travel for each per-
cent travel increment is the installed
gain graph.
It is this installed gain that the rest
of the control components have to deal
with in order to control the process. Fig-
ure 4 shows the results of a valve in-
stalled in the system from Figure 2 with
a flowmeter span of 2,800 gal/min.
Interpreting graph results
Although installed gain has an im-
portant effect on the dynamics of the
interaction between the control valve
and the system, many more factors
would have to be investigated in order
to predict the dynamic behavior. For
example, actuator dynamics, control-
ler tuning, packing friction, and piping
configuration are some of the factors
that also affect the dynamics.
Although the full dynamic interac-
tion of the system and the valve will
not be illustrated by developing an in-
stalled gain graph, there are several
useful things the graph can achieve:
Reveal the appropriateness of the
valves inherent gain characteristic
to the system characteristic
Showwhereinthevalvestravelthe
gain might impede controllability
Showthecontrolrangeofthevalve
for the system, such as the travels
CHEMCAL ENGNEERNG WWW.CHE.COM OCTOBER 2008 35
Figure 3. Developing an installed fow characteristic is the
frst step in creating an installed gain graph
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e
,

p
s
i
a
225
200
175
150
125
100
75
100 500 1,000 1,500 2,000
Flow, gpm (US)
Maximum
Normal
Minimum
P1 for valve
P2 for valve
System pressure characteristic
2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000
F
l
o
w
,

g
p
m

(
U
S
)
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
0 10 20 30 40
Valve travel, %
Maximum
Normal
Minimum
50 60 70 80 90 100
Installed flow characteristic
Figure 2. This illustrates a system characteristic that might be
found in conjunction with a pump. Assuming the control valve is
not undersized, it will have one position that can fulfll both the
fowrate and the pressure conditions that the system requires
Feature Report
36 CHEMCAL ENGNEERNG WWW.CHE.COM OCTOBER 2008
for which the control valve will be
able to perform optimally
Expose oversized or undersized
valves
Determine which of two candidate
valves is better suited to provide op-
timal controllability
When using the installed gain graph
to analyze the inherent characteristic
suitability, it is helpful to refer to es-
tablished guidelines. If the installed
gain turned out to be equal to one for
the entire valve travel, the rest of the
control system would not have to com-
pensate for the installed valve gain.
The tuning parameters used at one
travel would deliver equally accept-
able controllability at other travels.
Since the installed gain will not usu-
ally be equal to one throughout the valve
travel, guidelines have been developed.
According to Ref. [1], installed gains of
0.5 to 2.0 are desirable. If the installed
gain value wanders outside of these
limits for travels that are expected to be
used during the control of the process,
the controllability may suffer. Control-
ler tuning that works well at a travel
with a low gain, for example, may cause
an unstable system when used at travel
with a high installed gain.
Using inherent characteristics
Figure 5 shows an example of valves
with two, different inherent charac-
teristics applied to the same system in
Figure 2. These two valves are iden-
tical with the exception of the valve
trim used to characterize the flow. The
valve trim with the linear characteris-
tic results in installed gains that are
high at low travels and low at higher
travels. The equal-percentage inher-
ent characteristic in this case provides
an installed gain that stays within the
limits for a significantly larger portion
of the valve travel.
Potential controllability problems.
For both of the valves, the gain drops
below the recommended 0.5 lower
limit at higher travels. In these cases,
it is not troublesome because the low
gain occurs at travels higher than
where the maximum flow is expected
and where the flowmeter would have
pegged (exceeded) its full scale value.
Note, however, that the maximum flow
for the linear trim is experienced at a
lower travel than for the equal per-
centage trim. The linear trim is less
restrictive, so its maximum capacity is
moderately higher.
At the lower travels, the performance
difference between these two valves is
more apparent. The installed gain of
the linear valve increases rapidly at
lower travels and even crosses slightly
above the recommended upper limit of
2.0. If a constant controller gain is used
and is optimized at the maximum case,
the process may be difficult to control
at these lower travels. The controller
gain will be too high, possibly leading
to cycling and increased variability.
Some controllers have the capability
to vary their gain depending on valve
travel. However, this practice requires
careful consideration. A discussion of
the issues associated with the charac-
terization of controller gain is beyond
the scope of this article.
Control range. The control range of
an installed valve is the range of trav-
els for which the installed gain stays
within the recommended limits of 0.5
to 2.0. Choosing a valve with a con-
trol range that spans over more of the
valve travel and more of the expected
operating range can help optimize the
controllability of the system.
In the previous example, the linear
valve has a control range of 22 to 65%,
while the equal percent valve has a
control range of 14 to 88% when used
with the system in Figure 2.
Oversized valves. Control valves are
often sized larger than is optimal for
process control. One area where this
practice is particularly egregious is
with line-sized butterfly valves. When
a valve is oversized, it must operate
at lower travels and with a severely
reduced control range. Often, a better
choice is to install a butterfly valve that
is smaller than the line size or to choose
a butterfly valve that has better con-
trol characteristics, including a lower
capacity. Figure 6 shows the difference
between using a standard line-sized
butterfly valve and a reduced-size but-
terfly valve in the system from Figure
2. These two high-capacity valves have
similar geometry, but one is smaller.
The reduced-size valve will be operat-
ing from 31 to 80%, however, the line-
sized valve will be operating only from
18 to 46%. This result would be appar-
ent without analyzing the installed gain.
However, the installed gain graph gives
us information in addition to the travels
used. The control range of the reduced-
size valve is 10 to 90% while the control
range of the line-sized valve is only 40 to
58%. The installed gain at lower travels
is so high for the line-sized valve that
stable control could be difficult.
Figure 5. Here, behavior is compared for two valves with two,
different inherent characteristics applied to the same system
G
a
i
n
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 10 20 30 40
Valve travel, %
Maximum
gain
Minimum
gain
Installed gain
50 60 70 80 90 100
G
a
i
n
2.2
2.0
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 10 20 30 40
Valve travel, %
Maximum
gain
Minimum
gain
Installed valve gain
Valve 1: Equal percentage characteristic, Valve 2: Linear characteristic
50 60 70 80 90 100
Valve 1
Valve 2
Figure 4. The installed gain graph helps illustrate the rela-
tionship between the control valve and the system
CHEMCAL ENGNEERNG WWW.CHE.COM OCTOBER 2008 37
Assumptions
As often is the case when predictive analyses are made,
many assumptions are necessary. Installed gain analysis
is not an exception. Below is a brief discussion of the as-
sumptions upon which this particular article are based:
Thegainvaluebetweenthecontrolsignalandthevalve
position is one. Depending on what equipment is used,
there may be opportunities to characterize this gain in
the valve controller, positioner or actuator. Using these
methods to alter the installed gain also exposes other is-
sues that are beyond the scope of this article
Thevalvepositioningandcontrollingequipmentisquick
enough to fully respond to changes in the set point.
Complicating factors such as packing friction and shaft
windup are not taken into consideration, but can be im-
portant factors in selecting a control valve assembly
There are some systems for which this method does
not correctly predict the installed gain, for example
systems with a very large volume. The frequency at-
tributes are such that the installed gain predicted here
(which is a static gain) may no longer be valid, and an
inherent characteristic other than that predicted here
may be appropriate
The fluid is well-behaved. Complicated fluids may re-
quire alternate sizing methods beyond what is covered
in the ISA/IEC sizing standard. Examples of fluids that
may need special consideration are non-Newtonian flu-
ids, fluids with entrained gases or solids, and fluids at
supercritical conditions
Edited by Rebekkah Marshall
Reference
1. EnTech, Control Valve Dynamic Specification, Version 3.0, Nov. 1998.
Author
Melissa Niesen is a senior research engineer with Em-
erson Process Management (301 S. 1st Ave., Marshall-
town, IA 50158; Phone: 641-754-2392; Email: melissa.
niesen@emerson.com). She spent several years in the
valve test and evaluation group performing flow and life
cycle testing on Fisher products before joining the flow
sciences group. She holds a B.S.M.E. and M.S.M.E. from
Iowa State University and is a licensed professional en-
gineer in the state of Iowa. She is a member of ISA and
is active in the societys SP75 subcommittees.
G
a
i
n
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
0 10 20 30 40
Valve travel, %
Maximum
gain
Minimum
gain
Installed gain
Valve 1: Reduced-size, Valve 2: Line-sized
50 60 70 80 90 100
Valve 1
Valve 2
Figure 6. This installed gain graph compares line-sized ver-
sus reduced-size valves in the system defned in Figure 2
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