Pressure relief valve with redundant pressure sensing
An embodiment includes an oilfield manifold system that uses multiple pressure transmitters with a single pressure relief valve. The embodiment further incorporates related logic that may enable voting among transmitter pressure readings from multiple transmitters during, for example, the above-mentioned failure circumstances. As a result, the pressure relief valve is ensured it functions as needed without opening or closing falsely when the actual pressure within valve does not meet the valve open set criteria. In an embodiment, the logic dictates how the valve should function in various situations (e.g., when all pressure transmitter systems generate faulty readings) to ensure safe system/process functionality.
1 . An oilfield manifold system comprising:
a pressure relief valve having an input coupled to an upstream fluid volume and an output coupled to a downstream fluid volume;
first, second, and third pressure transmitters;
a first conduit that couples both of the first and second pressure transmitters to the pressure relief valve, wherein the first conduit is pressurized at a first conduit pressure;
a second conduit that couples the third pressure transmitter to the pressure relief valve;
at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon data, which if used by at least one machine, causes the at least one machine to perform operations comprising:
obtaining a first pressure measurement based on the first conduit pressure from the first pressure transmitter, a second pressure measurement based on the first conduit pressure from the second pressure transmitter, and a third pressure measurement from the third pressure transmitter;
determining a first error based on the first and second pressure measurements, a second error based on the second and third pressure measurements, and a third error based on the first and third pressure measurements;
determining which, if any, of the first, second, or third errors satisfies a predetermined error threshold;
when one or more of the first, second, or third errors satisfies the predetermined error threshold, determine a representative pressure measurement;
wherein at least two of the first, second, and third pressure measurements are unequal to each other.
2 . The oilfield manifold system of claim 1 , wherein determining the first error based on the first and second pressure measurements includes determining the first error based on a difference between the first and second pressure measurements.
3 . The oilfield manifold system of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise when none of the first, second, or third errors satisfies the predetermined error threshold, operate the pressure relief valve in a fail-safe mode of operation.
4 . The oilfield manifold system of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise, when none of the first, second, or third errors satisfies the predetermined error threshold, keeping the pressure relief valve closed in response to determining which, if any, of the first, second, or third errors satisfies a predetermined error threshold.
5 . The oilfield manifold system of claim 1 , wherein the first pressure transmitter includes a pressure transducer.
6 . The oilfield manifold system claim 1 , wherein determining a representative pressure measurement includes determining an average of two or more of the first, second, or third pressure measurements.
7 . The oilfield manifold system of claim 1 , wherein the pressure relief valve is closed.
8 . The oilfield manifold system of claim 7 , wherein:
the second conduit is pressurized at a second conduit pressure;
the third pressure measurement is based on the second conduit pressure.
9 . The oilfield manifold system of claim 8 , wherein:
at least a portion of the first conduit is external to the pressure relief valve;
at least a portion of the second conduit is external to the pressure relief valve.
10 . An oilfield manifold system comprising:
a pressure relief valve having an input coupled to an upstream fluid volume and an output coupled to a downstream fluid volume;
first, second, and third pressure transmitters;
a first conduit that couples the first pressure transmitter to the pressure relief valve, wherein the first conduit is pressurized at a first conduit pressure;
a second conduit that couples the second pressure transmitter to the pressure relief valve, wherein the second conduit is pressurized at a second conduit pressure;
a third conduit that couples the third pressure transmitter to the pressure relief valve, wherein the third conduit is pressurized at a third conduit pressure;
at least one non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon data, which if used by at least one machine, causes the at least one machine to perform operations comprising:
obtaining a first pressure measurement based on the first conduit pressure from the first pressure transmitter, a second pressure measurement based on the second conduit pressure from the second pressure transmitter, and a third pressure measurement based on the third conduit pressure from the third pressure transmitter;
determining a first error based on the first and second pressure measurements, a second error based on the second and third pressure measurements, and a third error based on the first and third pressure measurements;
determining which, if any, of the first, second, or third errors satisfies a predetermined error threshold;
when one or more of the first, second, or third errors satisfies the predetermined error threshold, determine a representative pressure measurement;
wherein at least two of the first, second, and third pressure measurements are unequal to each other.
11 . The oilfield manifold system of claim 10 , wherein the pressure relief valve is closed.
12 . The oilfield manifold system of claim 11 , wherein:
at least a portion of the first conduit is external to the pressure relief valve;
at least a portion of the second conduit is external to the pressure relief valve;
at least a portion of the third conduit is external to the pressure relief valve.
13 . The oilfield manifold system of claim 11 , wherein determining the first error based on the first and second pressure measurements includes determining the first error based on a difference between the first and second pressure measurements.
14 . The oilfield manifold system of claim 13 , wherein the first pressure transmitter includes a pressure transducer.
15 . The oilfield manifold system claim 11 , wherein determining a representative pressure measurement includes determining an average of two or more of the first, second, or third pressure measurements.