Outline

1.1. INTRODUCTION
1.2. CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF COMMON FLUID
MACHINES
2. SPECIFIC WORK OF FLUID MACHINES
3. THEORY OF TURBO MACHINES
4. THEORY OF POSITIVE DISPLACEMENT MACHINES
5. THEORIES OF POSITIVE DISPLACEMENT COMPRESSORS
5.1 Theory of reciprocating pumps
5.2 Theory of rotary pumps
5.3.Capacity Regulations
6. SELECTION AND SPECIFICATION OF FLUID MACHINES
Introduction

Significant Inefficiencies
• Compressors: 5 to > 50,000 hp
• 70 – 90% of compressed air is lost
Main Components in Compressed
Air Systems
 Intake air filters
 Inter-stage coolers
 After coolers
 Air dryers
 Moisture drain traps
 Receivers
 Types of Compressors
 Two Basic Compressor Types
5.1 Theory of Positive Displacement
Compressors
 In this chapter we study the theoretical principles behind
the design and operation of positive displacement
compressors. There are many similarities between the
theories of rotary and reciprocating compressors.
 reciprocating compressors are the most dominating one,
hence more emphasis is given to reciprocating
compressors.
 Reciprocating Compressors
 are the most common positive displacement compressors
used in the CPI.
 are special preferred for small capacity and high compression
ratio tasks.
 used in single stage and multi stage compressions.
 single stage
Air cooled (compression ratio of 3)
water cooled (compression ratio of 6)
 Indicator Diagram of Reciprocating
Compressors

 The indicator diagram of a reciprocating compressor

describes the variation of the pressure inside the cylinder
over the displaced volume (% stroke) for one complete
rotation of the crank
 Theoretical Indicator Diagrams
 Theoretical Indicator Diagrams
 Line 1-2: Both the suction and discharge valves are closed gas in the
cylinder is compressed up to the final pressure P 2.
 Line 2-3: The discharge valve opens when the pressure reaches P 2 and the
compressed gas is discharged at constant pressure. volume V cl in Figure
6.1, to be left over inside the cylinder at the end of the discharge stroke.
 Line 3-4: The piston starts the return stroke and the left over gas in the
clearance volume expands until the suction pressure P 4 is reached.  
 Line 4-1: When the pressure decreases and reaches P 4, the discharge valve
is closed and the suction valve opens and gas is drawn into the cylinder.

Vdis and Vdel in Figure 6.1 represent the displaced volume and the delivered volume
respectively. The expanded volume of the gas in the clearance volume is
represented by Vexp.
Actual Indicator Diagrams
The actual indicator diagram deviates from the theoretical
one due to
 Inertia of valves
 Valve plate sticking to the seat
 Pressure drop across the valve
 Inertia of the gas following through the suction and discharge
valves
The above mentioned factors cause the actual suction
pressure to be below the theoretical and the actual
discharge pressure to be above the theoretical as shown
in the next slide.
Actual Indicator Diagrams cont…
 Capacity of Reciprocating
Compressors
Compressors cylinders are built with a clearance in
order to prevent the piston head from striking against
the cylinder when approaching the extreme left
position.
V cl
a 
V dis

• In single stage compressors a=0.025 – 0.06 (2.5%-

6%).
• In multistage compressors a=0.2(20%)
 Capacity of Reciprocating
Compressors
For the polytrophic equation:

n n
P2 V  P1 V
cl exp
n- polytropic exponent
1/ n
 P2 
V exp    V cl Vi  Vdis(1 a( 1/ n 1))lkth
 P1 

Vexp  aVdis 1/ n
Qi Vi N Vdis(1a(1/ n 1))lkthN
Vs Vdis Vcl Vexp
D 2 Vs
Vs  Vdis  aVdis  aVdis 1/ n
Vdis  s  vol 
4 V dis
V s  Vdis (1  a ( 1 / n  1))
 Example:-
Determine the capacity of a duplex single acting
reciprocating compressor from the following data.
D=300mm
S=300mm
N=400 rpm
P1=100 kPa
P2=600 kPa
a=4%
Assume: lk=0.97, th=0.95,
Polytropic coefficient n=1.2
 Solution:-
For two cylinders working in parallel (Duplex):

2
 D2  0.3
Vdis  2 π S   2( )( )(0.3)  0.04241m 3
 4  4

Vi  Vdis (1  a( 1 / n  1))  0.04241(1  0.04(61 / 1.2  1))(0.97)(0.95)  0.03656 m 3

Q i  Vi N  0.03656(400)  14.62 m 3 /min

 The Specific Work of Reciprocating
Compressors

v1- specific volume of the gas

3 2

4 1

v(specific volume)

Figure 6.3 Theoretical Indicator Diagram of a Reciprocating

Compressor
The specific work done by the gas flowing into the cylinder (Y1), is
given by:
Y 1  P1 v 1

 The specific Work done to compress the gas in the cylinder (W2)
2
Y 2    Pd v
1

 Work done on the gas flowing out of the cylinder (W3)

Y 3  P2 v 2
 The total specific work done by the shaft is the sum of Y 1, Y2 and
Y3
Y  Y1  Y 2  Y 3

2
Y   P1 v1  1 Pd v  P2 v 2
 a. Y for Adiabatic Isentropic Compression (Yad)

 For adiabatic, isentropic compression it is already noted that

n=k=cp/cv.

P v K  Constant Ps vSK
1 R C
P v  K
1/ k
C P  CV  R  , and P  k
v   s   P S 1 / vk S
k
S
M CV
 P  P

CP R  k  R
1/ k
D PS vs D
Y ad  S dP  P1S/ k vs S P1 / k dp CP    CP   
P
1/ k
k M  k  1 M

 1  11/k 11/k
1/k
Yad  PS vs  PD  PS   K 1

1  1/k    PD  K
Yad  C P T s    1

PS 

 K 1

 k   P D  K
Yad  P S vs       1
 k  1   PS 
 

 K 1

RTs  k   P D  K
18 Yad       1

M  k  1  P S  
 
 b. Y for Isothermal Compression /Yiso

 For isothermal compression n=1. Hence,

2 P1 v 1 Pv  constant  P S  S
Y iso  P 2 v 2  P1 v 1  1 dv
v
v
P2 v2  P1 v1
v  Ps s
• But P
D Ps vsdP D dP
Yiso  S Ps vs S
P P

 PD 
Y iso  P s v s ln  
 PS 

R T S  PD 
Y iso  ln 
M  PS 
19
 Power of Reciprocating Compressors
 The brake power of reciprocating machine can be easily
determined by using the formula already developed in
Chapter 3. The adiabatic and isothermal efficiencies are
also defined in Chapter 3, accordingly.
m Y ad
Nb 
 ad

QP P   gH
Nb  ad
 ad

m Yiso
Nb 
 iso
 Determining the Compression Ratio

 The Euler equation of turbo machines is a general equation

for calculating the specific energy or head of a turbo
machine when the geometries of the impeller and the speed
are given.
 However in compressors and blower calculations we are
interested also in the compression ratio that can be
achieved by the impeller.
 The following part discusses how we calculate the
compression ratio
S dp
from
c D the
2
c S geometry and speed.
2
Y  D   ge
 2
 Using this notation, for adiabatic compression

 P1 ( k 1) / k  c32  c02

Yad  CpT1    1 
 P 2   2

On the other hand the from Euler’s equation we have

Yblade  u 2 c3u  u1cou
Taking the compression efficiency in terms of adiabatic Y  Yblade ad
efficiency
Y  (u2 c3u  u1cou ) ad (u 2 c3u  u1c0u ) ad
 P ( k 1) / k  c2  c 2
 CpT1  2   1  3 0
 P1   2
Rearranging for the compression ratio =P2/P1
k /( k 1)
 ad  (c  c 2
3
2
0 ) 
  1   (u 2 c 3u  u1 c 0 u )   
 CpT1  2 
Multistage Compression

When the compression ratio =PD/PS is large it is difficult to achieve

the compression in a single stage. The reasons are:
Since centrifugal and axial flow compressors are dynamic machines
increase in pressure is obtained through increase in velocity of the
flow medium in the compressor. However to get this high flow
velocity, the tip speed of the impeller (U 2) should be very high, and
this cannot be achieved easily in one stage due to the limited
strength of the material from which the impeller is made.

Adiabatic compression consumes much more power than

isothermal compression and the power increment increases as the
compression ratio increases.
compression ratio is high the heat to be removed to
bring the compression close to isothermal condition
increases. The effective way to remove this large
amount of heat is to use multistage compression where
the gas is cooled using separate heat exchangers after
each stage of compression.

Single stage designs with very high pressure

compression ratio results in low specific speed
impellers that have very low efficiency.
Number of Stages

 The optimum number of stages in multistage compression

can be calculated easily by assuming the same compression
ratio at each stage and neglecting the pressure drop
between the stages.

 The latter assumption is reasonable since the pressure drop

in the coolers is small as compared to the pressure rise at
each stage.

 According to this assumption the suction pressure of a

given stage will be the discharge pressure of the previous
stage.
 P1, D  P2, S 

P2, D  P3, S 

....... 
Pi , D  Pi 1, S 

Where
Pi, S = The inlet pressure of stage i
Pi, D = The discharge pressure of stage i
 For equal compression ratio at each stage
P1, D  P1, S 

P2, D  P2, S   2 P1, S 

P3, D  P3, S   3 P1, S 
..... 

z
Pz , D   P1, S 

If the total compression ratio required and the
compression ratio per stage are tot and  respectively,
the number of stages z is given by
P 
log D , z 
 Ps ,1
z


log( tot )
z
log( )
where
tot=Total compression ratio
= Compression ratio of each stage
z=Number of stages
Cooling in Multistage Compression

The theoretical amount of heat to be removed at

each stage is equal to the sensible heat to bring the
gas back to the suction temperature at each stage.
There are various types of cooling.
Inner cooling: - In this type of cooling, the
cooling medium (commonly water) is supplied
through passages in the cast casing intended for the
cooling purpose.
Inner cooling does not provide sufficient cooling
for high compression ratio.
 Inter cooling: - In this type of cooling the gas is cooled by
a heat exchanger between every stage or group of stages.
 A significant amount of saving can be achieved if the heat
exchanger provides sufficient heat transfer area.
Figure 4.62 shows the p-v diagram for compression
without and with inter cooler.
Note that the shaded area is the energy saved due to
inter cooling.

Specific energy saved per stage

due to cooling
P [kPa]

v [m3/kg]

Figure 5.6 Specific energy saved per stage due to cooling

Combined inner and inter cooling :- This is the most
efficient and extensively used method. However, due
to the complexity of the design the cost is high.

Direct cooling: - This is achieved by directly injecting

cooling medium (oil or water) into the flow medium.
The oil/water should later be separated from the
compressed gas if it is in a level that cannot be
tolerated.
 5.2 Rotary Compressors
 Most of the characteristics of rotary compressors are
similar to reciprocating compressors; therefore it would be
redundant to repeat them here. The capacity of screw
compressors depends on the speed, length diameter and
gear ratio. The following equations give the capacity,
adiabatic head and brake power of screw compressors.
Q  D 3 ( L / D )( GR ) n ( v / C )

RTs k  PD 
( k 1) / k

H ad     1
M k  1  Ps  


QP
Nb  P   gH ad
 ad