Partial Stroke Testing of Safety and Critical Valves

• Lawrence Beckman

Keywords: SILStroke, 2oo4D, Proof testing, Partial Stroke Testing, Diagnostics, Valves

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Abstract:

In process Facilities there are many valves in use. Some are for control of the process; others are used for process safety, as part of the Safety Instrumented System (SIS). Some non-safety process valves are critical as well, in that their failure could result in a shutdown of the process – a spurious trip.

The focus of this paper is directed to these safety-related or critical valves and their operation. From a production prospective, the operation of these valves is a major concern addressing both operational availability and safety availability. Both need to be considered to achieve optimal production and process safety performance.

Given that valves lack internal diagnostics, functional diagnostics must be utilized to perform diagnostic testing of the valve, while it is in operation. One method to perform this functional testing on-line is called Partial Stroke Testing (PST), which is suitable for use on safety (ESD) valves, as well as other critical valves. © 2009 Inside Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

Volume: 2009   Issue: 2

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