Axial flow nozzle check valves for

pumps and compressors protection

Nozzle Check valves which are also called axial flow check are very
important for non-return fluid purpose with non-slamming and fast closing
characteristics. They are mostly installed downstream of rotating equipment
to protect the expensive mechanical equipment from possible damages due to
backflow. Although they are costly option compared to other alternatives like
swing and dual plate check valves but can save a lot through safe protection
of costly rotating equipment and lower pressure drop. These valves are widely
used in different sectors of oil and gas industry such as top site offshore
platforms, subsea, refineries, pipelines, LNG and petrochemical plants.
Advantages and design considerations of these valves are described in the
next section. Figure 2: Spring assisted and Low Mass Disk of
Axial Flow Check Valve.

By Karan Sotoodeh, Aker Solutions area makes a pressure differential over

Advantages and design
considerations
• Robust Structure & Zero Leakage
• Quick closing and Easy opening disk:
Short axial disk travel to the seat,
spring assisted design in addition to
low mass disk make nozzle check
as a fast closing valve which is an
advantage in critical lines with fast
reversing flow. Fast closing response
reduces the possibility of equipment
damage due to back flow and
provides good protection for expensive
mechanical facilities. Low static
Figure 1: Axial Flow Non Slam Check Valve. pressure behind the disk in venturi
the disk causing easy opening of the
disk as well.
Robust body structure of the valve
gives more resistant associated with
vibration coming from upstream
equipment (pumps and compressors)
compared to dual plate and swing
check valves. Integrated body
without bolted body bonnet design
reduces the leakage risk through
the body close to zero. As a result
of zero emission body characteristic,
these valves are also used in subsea
application.

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the valve as a result of venturi effect

associated with nozzle design (bore
reduction) avoids flow turbulences,
minimizes erosion problems,
maximizes flow capacity as well as
easy opening of the disk. To sum
up, this valve has advantages from
both process and mechanical points
of view.

Figure 3: Robust design, Integrated body, ribs and axial nozzle casted together (Crain Design). • Long valve life
Non slam check valves have low or
even no maintenance requirement
from operational point of view. Having
disk as the only moving part which
travels very short distance to the seat
makes wearing in the disk and the
valve as minimum as possible. Spring
is just exposed to axial load unlike
the springs in dual plate check valves
which increases the life and reduces
the wearing. The valves are sometimes
sent back to the manufacturers for
examination and possible maintenance
after quit long time of operation from

Figure 4: Integrated body non slam check valves (No bolted bonnet) (Crain Design).

• Low pressure drop and high flow compressors selection to provide

capacity higher head and lower friction loss.
High pressure drop means higher The pressure drop for the valve is low
wearing and erosion in the valve as and less than 0.1barg normally. In Figure 6: Seat is greased on the valve send back to
well as more expensive pumps or addition, smooth flow patern through Crain for maintenance.

Figure 5: Smooth flow in axial flow check valve and venturi (Bore Reduction) effect.

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January/February 2015

7 to 10 years. Normally, these valves
are opened, examined, seat is greased
and pressure tested and sent back
to the operator without any major
maintenance.
• Non slamming
Although disk closing speed is fast,
the disk closing action does not
produce slamming against seat due to
short stroke and spring assisted design
which minimizes water hammer
and valve slam in the liquid services.
Water or liquid hammer is a possible
operation problem in which a pressure
wave is caused by the fluid service
due to sudden closing or slamming
of the valve. That can create noise,
vibration and (Or) piping collapse due
to additional piping loads.
• Shorter straight pipe run requirements
Ideally check valves should have
5 diameters of straight pipe both
upstream and downstream of the
valves. Insufficient straight pipe before
the dual plate and axial flow non-
slam check valves especially when
the fluid velocity is above 4.5 m/s
causes significant wear in the valve
and reduces the design life. Practically,
achieving 5D of straight pipe due to
layout space limit is very challenging
and sometimes not possible. However,
Figure 7: Straight Pipe up and down of non slam Check valve
Note1: The same straight pipe requirement for reducer or valve instead of elbow shown in
figure 7.
Note2: Upstream straight pipe is normally asked by vendors to be as long as 5D for Dual
plate check valves.
January/February 2015
special geometry of nozzle in axial
flow check valve makes venture effect
and smoother flow characteristic
as mentioned earlier in section3 so
that just 2D or 3D of straight pipe
upstream and downstream is enough.
This saves material, cost and specially
space which are critical parameters in
offshore platforms and FPSOs.
• Tight shut off
Axial flow check valves are tight
shut off although they are metal
seated. Even an erosive fluid can not
disturb the sealing since the valves
have robust designed. Normally they
are pressure tested according to
requirements of API 598 in which
the leak through the seat should be
maximum 3CC (Equal to 48Drops)
per size in inch per minute. However,
no or very small amount of leak is
normally observed from the valves.
Rarely clients ask for high pressure gas
tests on the seat if the valve is installed
in high pressure gas services.
• Different End to End design (Flexibility
in End to End Design)
Although manufacturer design (Short
Pattern) is commonly selected for the
valves, the compact design and ASME
B16.10 (API 6D) (Long Pattern) end to
end designs are also available in the
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market. Compact nozzle check which
meets requirements of API594 in end
to end design can give higher pressure
loss and more wearing internally
compared to manufacturer end to
end design. Unless otherwise space
is an important parameter, compact
design is not recommended. ASME
B16.10 or API 6D (Long Pattern) could
give pressure loss more or less the
same as short pattern manufacturer
standard. However, it is possible to
order a new valve in replacement of
the old valve with long pattern design
from different non slam manufacturers
(In case of maintenance) considering
that manufacturer end to end design
should be replaced by another valve
from the same manufacturer.
Figure 8: Crain end to end (short pattern) design.
Figure 9: Compact Nozzle Check Valve.
Conclusion
Selection of the suitable check valve in
pumps and compressors discharges is an
essential parameter in the mechanical
equipment system design. The challenge
is the valve should be opened easily with
low pressure loss to make movement of
the flow smoothly and to be closed gently
and fast to avoid flow return to the non-
operated mechanical equipment. Non
slam axial flow check valves are the best
choice of valve selection in this application
which provide high energy saving and safe
equipment protection.
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