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Keywords: Analysis • External load • Pipeline ball valve • Weld seam C O N T RO L & S M A RT V A LV E S

Testing and analysis of pipeline ball

valves
Part 1
In part 1 of this two part article, the author focuses on the importance of pipeline ball valve external loading
bending tests and the determination of bending load applying way and size. He also discusses the construction
of the external loading bending test device and the content and method of the test. Through the external load
bending test and analysis, it can be seen that when the displacement direction of the pipeline ball valve is the
same as that of the bending load, the displacement at the bottom can be the maximum value at the maximum
bending load with no effect on the sealing performance of the pipeline ball valve and the test pipe with the
coactions of media pressure and external bending load. With regard to the strength safety of the pipeline ball
valve body main welding and transition section material, the circumferential weld of the transition section
material on the pipeline ball valve body and the test pipe is the weakest joint, and the tensile stress at the
bottom near the circumferential welding in the test pipe approaches the yield strength of the test pipe. The
torque of the pipeline ball valve increases but remains less than the design torque. Meanwhile if the safety
coefficient of the selected actuator is more than 1.5, there is a higher safety allowance, the movement of the
valve in the torque test is flexible and the performance stable.

By He Weihua and Liang Lianjin, SHK Valve Group Co., Ltd, ShangHai

Introduction
In the research and development of the
pipeline ball valve, there are many kinds of
acceptance tests, however, these tests have
not been listed in the product standard
API 6D. But, they are very important to
the reliability and stability of the tested
product and the suitability of the service
condition for long-distance pipeline. The
body of the pipeline ball valve is a pressure
containing part. Besides the pressure of
the media inside the valve, it also has to
withstand external loads such as ground
settlement, landslide, flood, debris flow and
earthquake for example. Design standard
ASME B16.34 of pipeline ball valves refers
to additional considerations of valve body
wall thickness: Additional metal thickness,
particularly for ratings over Class2500,
needed for assembly stress, valve closing
stresses, shapes other than circular, and
stress concentrations must be determined
by individual manufacturers, since these
factors vary widely.”[1] This standard does
not define how to determine the body wall
thickness of the pipeline ball valve under
the condition of bending load. The bending
shell test requirements first appeared in
Appendix G of the British Standard BS
EN14141, “Where unusual conditions
apply, the purchaser should advise the
manufacturer. A bending test may be
required by the purchaser. In this case, the
purchaser should specify a suitable testing
procedure to be applied, including bending
moments and acceptance criteria.”[2] But
the standard does not give explicit specific
test rules for external load bending testing.
Therefore, the research of pipeline ball
valves under media pressure together with
external bending load should be extended,
and an external load bending test device
built to conduct the test. The purpose of
this test is to verify the reliability of the
valve movement, the sealing performance
of the pipeline ball valve, and whether there
is any significant change in the pipeline ball
valve torque under the condition of media
pressure and external bending load and, at
the same time, measure the stress of the
pipeline ball valve and pipe. The external
load bending test is of great importance to
the safe operation of the pipe.
External load bending test
The determination of the bending load
applying way
Analyze the applying way of the pipeline
ball valve under the condition of media
pressure and external load according to
the regulations of the relevant end parts
loading test in the ASME QME-1. The
bending torque is applied through the
center section of the stem.
The determination of the bending load
size
The external load is generated after the
valve has been installed in the pipeline. The
maximum external load exerted on the
end part can be exerted on the valve, but
it is not the extreme load which can bend
the pipe. For the external bending load,
in accordance with the regulations of the
ASME QME-1, the initial external bending
load of the test is carried out according
to the regulations of ASME, volume Three,
Pressure Equipment:
M = Fb ⋅ S [ 4]
(1)
In this equation, the M stands for the initial
external bending load of the test, Fb stands
for the section module of the structure.
S stands for the maximum stress of the
connecting pipe that may be generated,
taking the maximum stress of the yield
strength of the pipe material.
For example, test the pipeline ball valve
NPS 24 Class600, and calculate the
bending load. The pipe material is APL
SPEC 5L x 65, and the specification
Φ610 x 20, the yield strength is 450 MPa.
Fb = π/32 × (DO 4 − Di 4 )
/ (Di + t ) = 5474225mm3
In the equation, DO is the outer diameter
of the pipe, is the inner diameter of the
pipe, and t is the thickness of the pipe.
M = Fb × S = 5474225 × 450
= 2463401250 N.mm ≈ 246tonmeter
.
The initial external bending load of the
test M ≈ 246 ton meter is the calculated

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C O N T RO L & S M A RT V A LV E S
Figure 1. the test mechanical model of external bending load.
result without taking into consideration
media pressure, the weight of the pipe and
test media. With the combined action of
media pressure, the weight of the pipe and
test media, and the bending load that the
pipeline ball valve and test pipe withstands,
the actual bending load exerted in the test
will be less than M = 246ton meter. This
value can be determined through finite
element analysis.
The mechanical model of the pipeline ball
valve that withstands the external bending
load in the pipe system is shown in Figure
1, the two concentrated forces which are
relative to the valve center symmetric
acts around the transition section of the
valve, and forms the bending load. The
F in Figure 1 is the concentrated load in
the test, L is the distance between the
concentrated load F and the support end,
and the bending load is M= F*L.
Figure 2 shows a stress intensity
spectrogram under the combined action
of media pressure and external bending
load. With the action of the media pressure
10MPa, when the concentrated force is
19.5KN, that is when the external load
bending torque exertion reaches 246 ton
per meter, the stress intensity of the pipe
reaches its maximum value 477 MPa,
almost the yield strength of the pipe
material.
The gravity of the test pipe and test
media is about 7KN, the finalized exertion
concentrated force of the NPS 24 CLASS
600 pipeline ball valve in the test is 12.5KN.
Figure 2. the stress intensity spectrogram under the combined action of media
pressure and external bending load.
2 May 2013
The construction of the end part of the test pipe to measure
the external load the test pressure. First fill the pipeline
bending test device ball valve and test pipe with media when
The external load conducting the test, and then increase the
bending test device is pressure gradually by 25%, 50%, 75% and
shown in Figure 3 and 100%. Then release the pressure gradually
consists of a pressure by 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% of the design
supply system, data pressure down to zero pressure after
process system, loading and unloading the tension.
bending tension
system, tension sensor, The force of the bending load
displacement sensor, As shown in Figure 5, measure the actual
torque measuring load applied to the test pipe by the pull-
device, test bench, and pressure sensor.
The highest
pressure of the
pressure supply
system is 70MPa,
the shell test, high
pressure sealing
test and low
pressure sealing
test to the pipeline Figure 3. external load bending test device. 1. Pressure supply system; 2. Data
ball valve and the process system; 3. Bending tension system. 4. Tension sensor. 5. Displacement
test pipe can be sensor, 6. Torque measuring device. 7. Test bench. 8. Pressure sensor.
conducted with
this. The data process system consists tabs of the two pipes with the tension
of the electric resistance strain machine sensor. The force applied goes from 10KN
with USB interfaces, laptop computer to 20KN, increasing gradually to 120KN,
and professional testing analysis software. in increments of 10KN, ultimately reaching
The electric resistance strain machine can 125KN. Then decrease the load from
receive the testing data from the electric 125KN, to 120KN down to 0, each time
resistance strain gauge, tension sensor, decreasing by 10KN.
displacement sensor, torque measuring
device and pressure sensor, and shows
the testing results in the form of charts
after processing by the strain testing
software. The bending tension system
mainly consists of the double action
hydraulic cylinder and hydraulic system.
When testing the NPS24 CLASS600
pipeline ball valve, the tension of the
single double action hydraulic cylinder is
30T, and the stroke is 250mm, the rated
Figure 4. Pressure sensor installation diagram.
working pressure of the hydraulic system
is 18 MPa. The test bench consists of
Measurement of the displacement
the pipeline ball valve, test pipe, support On the center line position at the bottom
seat, pressure gauge and the base. The of the valve, the vertical displacement
total length of changed by different loading is measured
the pipeline ball by the displacement sensor, and the
valve and test pipe displacement sensor is shown in Figure 5.
after welding is
25000mm. The shell test and sealing performance
The content and test of the pipeline ball valve and test
method of the pipe
external load Keep the duration for 30 minutes after
bending test exerted 10MPa media pressure and
As shown in bending load to the pipeline ball valve
Figure 4, install the and test pipe, then conduct the shell test,
pressure sensor on high pressure seal test and low pressure
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 C O N T RO L & S M A RT V A LV E S

transition materials
of the pipeline ball
valve and the test
pipe, and near the
circumferential weld
of the test pipe.

The torque
measurement of
the pipeline ball [a] Two pieces perpendicular [b] Three pieces perpendicular
Figure 5. Tension and displacement sensor
valve
installation diagram. Test the torque of Figure 6. Strain rosette
the pipeline ball valve
seal test according to the requirements • Exerting bending load to the pipeline
according to the requirements of the
of the API 6D. Detect the leakage with ball valve and test pipe.
API 6D after exerted 10 MPa media
visual inspection in shell test, and through • Measure the displacement of the
pressure and bending load to the pipeline
the detection of discharge hole on the pipeline ball valve.
ball valve and test pipe. After the test,
bottom of the valve body in high pressure • Conduct the shell test and sealing
seal test and low pressure seal test. performance test of the pipeline ball
valve and the test pipe.
The stress measurement of the pipeline • Measure the stress of the pipeline ball
ball valve and test pipe valve and test pipe.
During the measurement, choose two • Measure the torque of the pipeline
pieces perpendicular type strain rosettes ball valve after exerted pressure and
and three pieces perpendicular type strain bending torque.
rosettes respectively to measure the stress • Unload the bending force.
according to the structural characteristics • Unload the pressure.
of the test pipeline ball valve. The direction • Data process.
of the paste strain rosette are 0°, that
is parallel to the horizontal axis, 45°and References
90°, vertical to the horizontal axis of [1] ASME B16.34, Flanged and
the pipeline ball valve. The ε0, ε45 and
Figure 7. The stress measuring point distribution Welding End Steel Valve
ε90 stands for the strain rosette of the
diagram [2] BS EN 14141, Valves for Natural
direction 0°, 45°and 90° respectively.
Gas Transportation—performance
When adopt the figure 6 (a) showing compare the torque with the test result
requirements and tests
the two pieces perpendicular type strain which only exerts 10MPa media pressure
[3] ASME QME-1, Qualification of
rosettes, calculate the main stress ε1 and to the pipeline ball valve without bending
Mechanical Equipment Used in
ε2 according to equation (2), the bigger load.
one is σmax. When adopt the figure 6 (b) Nuclear Power Plant
showing the three pieces perpendicular The procedure of external load bending [4] ASME Pressure Equipment, Volume
type strain rosettes, calculate the main test Three, Rules for Construction of
stress ε1 and ε2 according to the equation • Test the pipeline ball valve torque Nuclear Power Plant
(3), the bigger one is the σmax. without bending force. [5] API 6D-2008, Pipeline Valves
Among them, the corresponding strain of • Exerting force to the pipeline ball
Part II will appear in the June issue of Valve World
0° is ε0, ε45 is for 45°, and the ε90 is for 90°, valve and test pipe.
the main strain is:
About the authors
Ε ( ε 0 + µε 90 ) Ε ( ε 90 + µε 0 ) LianJin Liang, born in 1982 in Xiamen City, Fujian Province,
σ1 = , σ2 =
1− µ 2 1− µ 2 (2) China, is an Engineer for ICEME. In 2001, he graduated from
Ε ⎡ ε + ε 90 1 ⎤
Nanjing University of Science and Engineering, majoring in
σ12, = ⎢ 0 ± ( ε 0 − ε 90 ) + (2ε 45 − ε 0 − ε 90 )
2 2
⎥ Mechanical & Electrical Integration. These days he focuses on the
2 ⎣ 1− µ 1+ µ ⎦
(3)
design and research of metal to metal ball valves, large port fully
Among them, the εmax is the main factor
welded pipeline ball valves, cryogenic valves and super hard alloy
to the damages of the structure.
coatings, amongst others. His e-mail address is shkvcllj@163.com
Therefore, mainly research and analyze the
He Weihua is the Vice President of SHK Valve Group for Research
εmax of different measuring positions of the
& Development. He is a committee member of the Chinese
pipeline ball valve and test pipe. The stress
Mechanical Engineering Society, cryogenic valve research group
measuring points are shown in figure 7,
member as well as a Shanghai Branch member of the Chinese Fluid Engineering Society.
and mainly distributed on main welding
Over the past 20 years he has been engaged in the research & development of
of the pipeline ball valve body, transition
special valves in the domestic market and has won many awards such as first prize for
materials of pipeline ball valve body,
the Shanghai Technical Innovation.
the circumferential weld between the

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