Butterfly Valves

What is Butterfly Valves?

Butterfly valves are a family of quarter-turn rotational motion valves that are used in pipelines to shut-off flow. It is often said that butterfly valves can be used to regulate the flow. However, we do not recommend doing this, as it can damage the valve disk and have a negative effect on the sealing properties.

They are used in a wide variety of process media and industries especially in water supply, collection, and distribution, as well as pumping stations, and have a broad range of use cases especially in flow isolation. A couple of their key advantages over other valve families are their simple construction and compactness, resulting in the end products being of lighter weights and lower cost and with smaller installation footprints and faster actuation speeds.

Butterfly valve: working principle

The construction of a butterfly valve is relatively simple, with the rotation of the valve disc controlling the fluid flow. In the closed position, the disc blocks the valve bore while in the open position, the disc is oriented perpendicular to the flow direction to allow flow. Butterfly valves generally provide bi-directional flow and shutoff capability. However, they are not full-bore, which renders them unsuitable for pigging or swabbing. The body material is ductile iron with an epoxy powder coat on both internal and external surfaces. The valves are typically operated by handwheels, gears, or actuators, or a combination thereof, according to the specific application requirement and technical specifications. We will be discussing the actuation methods later in the article.

Advantages of butterfly valves

Depending on the application, butterfly valves can offer significant advantages over other types of valves, especially for dimensions over DN 200 (200 mm) in size:

• Lightweight and Compact: With a compact design and a smaller face to face dimension, butterfly valves have a considerably less installation footprint and offer savings in the form of lower installation costs including labour cost, equipment, and piping support.
• Low Maintenance Requirements:An inherently simple, economic design that consists of few moving parts, and hence fewer wear points, significantly reduces their maintenance requirements.
• Fast Acting:A 90° rotation of the handle, or the actuation mechanism, provides a complete closure or opening of the valve. However, with larger butterfly valves, a gearbox is often required as part of the actuation mechanism which reduces the operational torque and simplifies the operation of the valve but comes at the expense of speed.
• Low Cost:Owing to their simple design, butterfly valves require less material and are simpler to design and manufacture and are often the more economical choice compared to other valve types. The cost savings are mainly realized in larger valve sizes, typically above DN 300.
• Versatility:Butterfly valves have a wide variety of use cases including the ability to be installed underground.