A STUDY ON CONTROL VALVE FAULT INCIPIENT

DETECTION MONITORING SYSTEM USING ACOUSTIC

EMISSION TECHNIQUE



Intan Najiha binti Mohd Shukri
Electrical & Electronic Engineering Department
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia
Najihashukri@gmail.com
Rosdiazli bin Ibrahim
Electrical & Electronic Engineering Department
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia
Rosdiazli@petronas.com.my


Abstract Generally industrial plants are anticipated to run
constantly with full capacity with the aim of to meet the
production needs. Abnormalities in the machinery or
equipment must be detected and analyzed at the early stage to
avoid major problems. Control valves are vital components of
process control loops and their condition must be monitored on
a regular basis to ensure that their performance does not turn
beyond specified tolerance bands. A schedule shutdown for
inspection and diagnosis is usually implemented.
Consequently, by monitoring the condition of control valves
and their associated accessories, the maintenance strategy
could be predicted for these critical components. This paper
aims to study the effectiveness of Acoustic Emission technique
for fault detection of control valves. A real time AE
measurement system is developed and tested. The acquired AE
signatures are processed and analyzed using MATLAB. Time
domain analysis are performed to identify the exact faults in
the control valve.

Keywords Control valve, Acoustic Emission, MATLAB
SIMULINK, time domain, statistical analysis
I. INTRODUCTION
A study [1] reported that the cost of performing predictive
maintenance on valves can be up to five times less
expensive than preventive maintenance and ten times less
expensive than corrective maintenance even before the cost
of downtime are figured in. Another study [2] performed by
Soloman Associates at more than 100 olefin plants at North
America, found that overall plant reliability was best in
plant that has highest level of working, effective process
control.
The loss of production due to reliability issues
ranged from 2% of plant capacity in the best facility to
about 16% in the worst plants. The failure of control valve
to operate correctly in plant could cause serious
consequences, damage and costly downtime. Therefore the
condition monitoring of the control valve is importance in
industry since it keeps the plant at healthy condition as well
as detecting and diagnosing the faults at early stage.Control
valves are the key components in any control systems.
Malfunctioning control valves will cause the unscheduled
system shutdown, thus, resulting in unnecessary economic
losses. Therefore the performance of the control valve
system can be maintained by monitoring and diagnosing
control valve condition.
A. Control Valves
When the control valve breaks down, some of its faulty
parts will produce sound wave and generate random
frequencies and amplitude which can be detected in the
structure of the control valve. The process plant used consist
of flow control valve as liquid is the main supply. The
vibration, axial displacement, accelerometer and velocity
signals are quite common in the field of condition
monitoring system. Normally, the control valve faults and
problem can be detected and identified by comparing the
signals of control valve in normal and abnormal condition
[3, 4].
B. Acoustic Emission Techniques
Acoustic Emission Techniques have been applied in
various engineering applications such as civil, chemical,
physical and biological processes, non destructive testing of
reinforced structures and materials, and etc. [5, 6]. Acoustic
Emission can be defined as transient elastic waves generated
by rapid release of energy from localized source within a
material under stress. These stress waves are measured
using piezoelectric transducer which is connected to a
monitoring system. The detected signals are pre-processed
and analyze in order to get information of process that has
been monitored. Generally faulty components and parts in
control valve system generate a phenomenon in form of
friction, wear and tear, impact and etc.
Such mechanisms produce elastic wave signals. These
waves propagate through the structure of control valve.
This paper present the Acoustic Emission monitoring
system developed to capture elastics wave signals at the
body or part of the control valve. The acquired signals are
processed and analyzed using advance signal processing
techniques. The schematic diagram of basic acoustic
emission testing system is shown in Figure 1.
C. Statistical Analysis
Peak level, kurtosis analysis and root mean square (RMS)
value are the examples of statistical analysis. Kurtosis is one
of parameters that calculate 4th moment of probability
density function where the probability density function is
given by:

(1)
Kurtosis is a measure of the implusive nature of the signal.
It is a global signal statistic which is highly sensitive to
the spikiness of the data. Kurtosis is an important parameter
that is used in engineering for detection of symptoms of
defection due to its sensitivity to high amplitude events.
Kurtosis techniques are widely used in crack detection in
isotropic plates and also modulation classification of
communication signals [8].

(2)

Kurtosis value that does not exceed 3.0 proved that the
machine is in a good condition, while for kurtosis that
exceed 3.0, it indicates that the machine is in failure [8]. The
kurtosis value increases with machine defect severity [17].
However, there are cases that kurtosis value goes down as
the damages increases over time. Thus, the status of RMS
value will be compute to validate the condition of
deteriorate tool. Root mean square (RMS) will increase with
the increase of defection [18].



Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of acoustic emission testing system.


II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The experimental setup is based on Acoustic Emission
sensor system combined in series with signal amplifier and
a process is shown schematically in Fig. 1. As the process
pilot plant is started, the control valve characteristics; the set
point, SP is set to 2, manipulate variable MV is set to 70%
of valve opening and while process variable PV of about 2
m
3
/h. Process variable, PV represent the liquid flowrate of
the control valve. AE sensor (model WD DIFF AE sensor/
1m integral cable) is attached to middle and bottom of
control valve body and at the position of control valve
coupling.The sensor positions were determined by the
analogy of the propagation of the water flow in the section
of control valve. The experimental setup of the proposed
study is shown in Figure 2.

This type of sensor is used to get high fidelity and
frequency analysis of AE signals as well as providing useful
information about the control valve condition and for noise
discrimination. The AE signal is filtered and amplified
using 60/40/20 dB AE PREAMPLIER with a filter. The
PAC AE5A amplifier is a high performance AE system that
amplifies and filters incoming AE signals. The high-
frequency AE analog signal output is interfaced to laptop
using the National Instrument Data Acquisition System (NI
DAQ MCC1208FS). DAQ is configured using Instacal.
When DAQ is completed, the transmitted signals will be
analyzed using MATLAB software.


Figure2. Experimental setup of control valve fault detection AE technique.


III. DATA AND RESULTS
The experiment is set out to test the behaviour of healthy
and faulty control valve. The acquired patterns of AE
signals of healthy and unhealthy condition of control valve
were initially studied. The experimental test is performed at
several positions of control valve and at various gain. Time
and frequency domain of the acquired AE signal will be
analyzed using MATLABr2009a. Fig. 3 represents AE
sensor attached to coupling side of control valve.
A series of experiments were performed to demostrate the
characteristics of a healthy control valve. AE sensor is
attached to the position of top and middle body of the
control valve and also at the coupling of control valve.
Preamplifier is maintained to 60dB while the amplifier is
adjusted from 9dB until 41dB. Time domain analysis have
been carried out to gain the signals of the healthy control
valve. Fig. 4, 5, and 6 shown the results obtained when
amplifier is adjusted to 41db at the different positions of
control valve .




(a)


(b)
Figure4 a,b. Time and frequency domain of AE signal for
control valve operated at 41dB and at the bottom of body position.


(a)


(b)
Figure 5 a,b. Time and frequency domain of AE signal for control valve
operated at 41dB and at the middle of body position.


(a)


(b)
Figure 6 a,b. Time and frequency domain of AE signal for control valve
operated at 41dB and at the coupling position.


Statistical method to the monitoring and control of the
process is used to analyze and indicated healthy and
unhealthy control valve. Among many amplitude
parameters, Kurtosis(4th normalized moment of probability
density function) and standard deviation are recognized to
be the sensitive good parameter for machine diagnosis.
Kurtosis has a value of 3.0 and standard deviation is 0.5
under normal condition and these values generally go up as
the deterioration occured. [7]





The time domain AE signals of healthy control valve is
analyzed using statistical approach. The test is operated at
41dB gain. The standard deviation and Kurtosis is presented
in Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3.

TABLE 1
STANDARD DEVIATION, KURTOSIS, & MAXIMUM AMPLITUDE
OF HEALTHY CONTROL VALVE OPERATING AT 41dB OF GAIN
AND AT BOTTOM BODY POSITION

Test no Kurtosis Standard deviation Max amplitude
1 2.9911 0.3097 1.2918
2 2.9980 0.3111 1.4188
3 2.9781 0.3108 1.2918
4 3.0140 0.3177 1.2821
5 3.0105 0.3104 1.4383
6 2.9905 0.3104 1.4579
7 3.0238 0.3096 1.2869
8 3.0000 0.3114 1.4286
9 2.9622 0.3679 1.6142
10 2.9891 0.3694 1.5067

TABLE 2
STANDARD DEVIATION, KURTOSIS, & MAXIMUM AMPLITUDE
OF HEALTHY CONTROL VALVE OPERATING AT 41dB OF GAIN
AND AT MIDDLE BODY POSITION

Test no Kurtosis Standard deviation Max amplitude
1 3.2303 0.3682 1.6044
2 3.2129 0.3674 1.8144
3 3.1645 0.3648 1.6435
4 3.1790 0.3656 1.6581
5 3.1822 0.3656 1.6825
6 2.9979 0.3688 1.6239
7 3.0047 0.3643 1.6337
8 3.0030 0.3588 1.4530
9 3.0009 0.3566 1.4823
10 2.9994 0.3578 1.5116


TABLE 3
STANDARD DEVIATION, KURTOSIS, & MAXIMUM AMPLITUDE
OF HEALTHY CONTROL VALVE OPERATING AT 41dB OF GAIN
AND AT COUPLING POSITION

Test no Kurtosis Standard deviation Max amplitude
1 3.0348 0.3612 1.5458
2 2.9823 0.3627 1.5409
3 2.9968 0.3649 1.7021
4 2.9962 0.3697 1.7949
5 2.9783 0.3695 1.4921
6 2.9954 0.3700 1.6044
7 2.9827 0.3685 1.6142
8 2.9907 0.3684 1.6337
9 2.9954 0.3695 1.6386
10 2.9969 0.3708 1.5556


From time domain signal analysis, it is evident that the
maximum amplitude of the AE signals for healthy control
valve does not exceed 2.2 Vpp.Whereas FFT analysis shows
that there is no peak signals present for the whole frequency
range of the AE sensors.

It can be seen from the statistical parameter in table 1,
table 2, and table 3 which the sensor is attached at the
position of bottom, middle and coupling of control valve
that the control valve being used is in a good condition as
the Kurtosis values are less and in between of 3 and
standard deviation does not alter for more than 0.5 upon all
the tested gain, the stipulation that proves the healthy
condition of control valve.[8]

There are present some of Kurtosis values exceed the
value of 3.0. It maybe indicates that the control valve is in
incipient stage of deteriorating. This is maybe due to the
limitation of new control valve at pilot plant and mostly the
good control valve being used is not a totally new and have
been services for several times.

Detecting at the on-set of failure is one of the main
faetures that this technique should be able to demonstrate. In
order to determine the condition and behaviour of unhealthy
control valve, a test on leakage control valve have been
tested.

(a)

(b)

Figure 6 a,b. Time and frequency domain of AE signal for control valve
operated at 41dB and at the bottom of body position.



(a)

(b)
Figure 7 a,b. Time and frequency domain of AE signal for control valve
operated at 41dB and at the middle of body position.


(a)


(b)
Figure 8 a,b. Time and frequency domain of AE signal for control valve
operated at 41dB and at coupling position.

Next, a test on leakage control valve is performed to
demonstrate the behaviour of unhealthy condition of control
valve. The water visually can be seen coming out from the
coupling side of control valve. The time domain and AE
signals spectrum are obtained and sample patterns are
shown in Fig. 6, 7 and 8.

From the time domain analysis, it is evident that the result
indicate that, the amplitudes of AE time domain signals of
leakage control valve for each tested position notably
increase to higher values (reach 9.0 Vpp) which is exceed
normal condition maximum amplitude at 2.0 Vpp. The
maximum amplitude values of leakage control valve shows
big different between healthy and unhealthy control valve.

Whereas for the statistical parameters; kurtosis, standard
deviation as well as ampitude of the time domain signals
obtained for leakage control valve are shown in Table 4,
Table 5, and Table 6. The standard deviation for all repeated
tests altered more than 0.5, where as kurtosis values are
more than 3 which are relatively higher compare to the
healthy control valve.





TABLE 4
STANDARD DEVIATION, KURTOSIS, & MAXIMUM AMPLITUDE
OF UNHEALTHY CONTROL VALVE OPERATING AT 41dB OF
GAIN AND AT BOTTOM BODY POSITION

Test no Kurtosis Standard deviation Max amplitude
1 5.7428 1.0957 7.1380
2 5.7497 1.0814 7.6166
3 5.7230 1.0645 7.3724
4 5.6998 1.0740 8.5690
5 5.4976 1.0688 6.9377
6 5.5481 1.0814 7.7192
7 5.4470 1.0931 6.4249
8
5.4493 1.1063 6.6593
9
5.5629 1.1186 9.0525
10
5.5481 1.0813 7.7194


TABLE 5
STANDARD DEVIATION, KURTOSIS, & MAXIMUM AMPLITUDE
OF UNHEALTHY CONTROL VALVE OPERATING AT 41dB OF
GAIN AND AT MIDDLE BODY POSITION

Test no Kurtosis Standard deviation Max amplitude
1 4.3039 0.9229 4.6129
2 4.8956 0.8068 3.9976
3 5.0213 0.7861 3.9381
4 5.0446 0.7712 3.8901
5 5.1621 0.7613 4.2466
6 5.1579 0.7572 3.8071
7 5.1895 0.7522 3.6068
8 5.1602 0.7484 3.9194
9 5.2094 0.7515 3.9585
10 5.0498 0.7503 3.5824





TABLE 6
STANDARD DEVIATION, KURTOSIS, & MAXIMUM AMPLITUDE
OF UNHEALTHY CONTROL VALVE OPERATING AT 41dB OF
GAIN AND AT COUPLING POSITION

Test no Kurtosis Standard deviation Max amplitude
1 4.2050 1.9424 9.0134
2 4.2886 1.9696 8.9206
3 4.2197 1.9553 8.8034
4 4.2407 1.9567 8.9499
5 4.6492 1.8171 9.0183
6 4.592 1.8139 8.8620
7 4.2026 1.9665 8.8327
8 4.2846 1.9673 8.7741
9 4.2305 1.9666 9.0720
10 4.2501 1.9807 8.6540

The statistical analysis gives a good indication of what the
characteristics and behaviour of control valve will be. It is
provide very useful information that can distigush between
control valve working at healthy and unhealthy condition.


CONCLUSION
This paper has described a condition monitoring technique
applied to control valve to detect of faults and a system that
also has been developed to provide a test bed for this
concept to be tested in real time. By implementation of the
proposed AE monitoring techniques it is expected to obtain
valuable information regarding the performance of control
valve at early stage.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful for supervision by Dr. Rosdiazli
Ibrahim, and AP Dr. Radzuan Razali in doing this research.
Not forgotten to En.Azhar Zainal Abidin, for the technical
help and guidance.









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