On the Performance of Ball Check Valves
- Key words
- Well Completion; Mexico; Valves; Water; Seals; Fluid Velocity
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 1989
- Session
- Ball check valves; Liquid dominated reservoirs; Equipment de
- Language
- English
Abstract
Ball check valves are used to stop water from entering the steam pipeworks system of geothermal installations. However, from the very beginning of their us, it has been frequently found that they do not consistently operate as it was expected. This paper describes the tests performed by the Instituto de Investigaciones Electricase (IIE) for Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) on transparent models using air water mixtures to simulate steam water flows and the conclusions reached from them, namely, that ball check valves cannot work as intended at the conditions found in all practical instances, so that money can be saved and operational problems avoided by taking them off the well pad layout.
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