Simulating offshore platform data to determine trigger of safety release valve

This case study details how Element Digital Engineering used engineering simulation to resolve safety-release-valve triggers on an offshore platform. By developing one-dimensional pressure-flow models from site data, the team identified a control valve operating beyond its capacity as the root cause of shutdowns and supported corrective action.

The Challenge

The customer was managing an offshore platform which was encountering problems following plant upgrades where safety release valves were being triggered by pressure fluctuations. The causes of these pressure oscillations needed to be located and understood to prevent further site shutdowns.

The Solution

Element Digital Engineering’s team of experts worked in partnership with the customer to understand the plant system and capture the flow behavior across several pumps and control valves to monitor pressure variations at key locations. The plant was assessed using one-dimensional models to capture the pressure and flow rates using actual site data across a range of likely scenarios.

The Result

The cause of the plant shutdowns was determined to be a control valve that was operating beyond its capacity. Element Digital Engineering’s detailed assessment highlighted that following plant upgrades the large recycle flow of the main oil line pumps was the most likely cause, allowing the customer to increase the valve size and avoid pressure build-up in the system to prevent future plant shutdowns.