RELIEF VALVE ORIFICE SIZES

The American Petroleum Institute has developed a series of inlet size, orifice, outlet size
combinations for various pressure classes of flanged relief valves. These combinations
have been widely adopted by engineers throughout the oil and gas and allied industries.
Central to these combinations are a series of fourteen standard orifice sizes each denoted
by a letter ranging from D through to T. Each letter refers to a specific effective orifice
area.

The full list of letters and corresponding effective area is shown below;

Relief Valve Orifice Sizes

Bore Dimensions
Letter
in2 cm2
D 0.110 0.71
E 0.196 1.26
F 0.307 1.98
G 0.503 3.24
H 0.785 5.06
J 1.287 8.30
K 1.838 11.85
L 2.853 18.40
M 3.600 23.23
N 4.340 28.00
P 6.380 41.16
Q 11.050 71.29
R 16.000 103.22
T 26.000 167.74

It is worth noting that the relief valve manufacturer is not required to produce a valve
with a bore area equal to the effective area. He is however obliged to produce a valve
which will have a flow rate equal to or greater than that determined by the API
formulas.