A pressure relief valve that fails to open — or opens too late — doesn’t just damage equipment. It kills people. Pressure relief is the last line of defence against an overpressure event, and it is one of the most consequential areas of process engineering. Yet the terminology confuses engineers, the scenario selection is regularly botched, and the installation details that cause real-world failures are almost never taught in formal training.
This course fixes that. Aligned to ASME VIII (UG-125 to UG-136), API 520 Parts I & II, API 521, API 526 and API 2000, it takes you from first principles through to sized valves, selected orifices and a complete disposal system — with worked examples throughout.
What you will be able to do after this course:
- Explain set pressure, accumulation, overpressure, blowdown and backpressure — and why getting these wrong invalidates your entire design
- Apply the accumulation limits that govern single and multiple relief devices under ASME VIII
- Select the right relief device for the application: conventional spring PRV, balanced-bellows, pilot-operated valve, rupture disc or buckling pin
- Work through API 521 overpressure scenarios — blocked outlet, cooling water failure, fire case and more — and identify the governing case
- Size a PRV for gas/vapour, liquid, thermal and two-phase / flashing flow using API 520 Part I
- Select the correct API 526 standard orifice
