Artificial lift

Effect of R Ratio on Performance of Injection-Pressure-Operated Gas-Lift Valves

This paper describes the consequences of using an assumed R ratio in a gas-lift design that is not the same as the actual R ratio of the valve.

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Fig. 1—Typical injection-pressure-operated gas-lift valve.

An injection-pressure-operated gas-lift valve’s closing force comes from a nitrogen charge acting on the effective area of the bellows (Ab) or a spring force. The opening force is the production pressure acting on the area of the port (AP) plus the injection pressure acting on the bellows effective area minus the area of the port. The ratio AP/Ab is referred to as the R ratio, which traditionally has been considered constant for every valve of the same type. The actual R ratio, however, is not a constant.

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