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Abstract
Oil injected twin-screw air and gas compressors are widely used for medium pressure applications in many industries. Low cost air
compressors can be adopted for compression of helium and special gases, leading to signicant cost saving. Mathematical analysis of oil
injected twin-screw compressor is carried out on the basis of the laws of perfect gas and standard thermodynamic relations. Heat transfer
coecient required for computer simulation is experimentally obtained and used in performance prediction, when the working medium
being air or helium. A mathematical model has been developed for calculating the compressor performance and for validating the results
with experimental data. The ow coecients required for numerical simulation to calculate leakage ow rates are obtained from e-
ciency verses clearance curves. Eect of some of the compressor operating and design parameters on power and volumetric eciencies
have been analyzed and presented.
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Screw compressor; Oil injection; Heat transfer coecient; Leakage; Flow coecients
1359-4311/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2006.05.007
146 N. Seshaiah et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 145155
Nomenclature
working cycle. Major processes of screw compressor are Under ideal conditions, the heat lost by the oil lm must be
suction, compression and discharge. Analysis of these equal to heat gained by the fresh gas mass. From Eqs. (1)
individual processes is essential to model the compressor and (2), the mean temperature of inducted gas at the end of
performance. suction process can be obtained as
1. volume change due to rotor rotation, Substituting (11)(14) in (10), and rearranging, the rate of
2. mass and enthalpy ows of gas entering or leaving the change of working gas temperature is obtained
working space through discharge port and leakage
dT g k 1T g dV P b mgi
paths, qli qlo kT gb T g
dt Vg dt P Mg
3. mass and enthalpy ows of oil, entering or leaving the
working space through discharge port and leakage mgo hA
k 1T g T g T l 15
paths, Mg cv M g
4. heat exchange between gas and oil. The rst term on the right-hand side of the above equation
relates to the change in volume including the leakage rate
To simplify the calculations, the following assumptions of oil. The second and third terms represent the eect of
are made: gas leakage into and out of the compressor cavity respec-
tively. The last term is derived from the heat transfer from
Gas and oil temperatures are homogeneous at any gas to the oil.
instant in the working space. The rate of change of net gas volume of the working
Gas and oil never change phase. chamber [4] can be written as below:
Pressure is uniform throughout the working space at
any stage. dV g dV
qli qlo 16
The working gas is an ideal gas. dt dt
Oil is an incompressible uid. The rate of change of gas mass due to internal leakage is
Heat exchange between gas and oil is in proportion to given by the expression
the temperature dierence between them.
dM g
A pressure uctuation across the discharge port is mgi mgo 17
dt
negligible.
The equation of state of perfect gas may be written as
Fujiwara and Osada [4] derived the fundamental equa- follows:
tions based on standard thermodynamic laws and the laws PV g M g RT g
of perfect gas. The following equations are derived with
some modications and other details are introduced as The dierential form of the above equation can be written
needed. as follows:
The rst law of thermodynamics for unsteady ow of dP 1 dV g dM g dT g
gas through the working chamber can be expressed as P RT g RM g 18
dt Vg dt dt dt
dEv dQ dW Substituting Eqs. (15)(17) in Eq. (18), the rate of change
mgi igi mgo igo 9
dt dt dt of pressure is obtained as follows:
Ev is the sum of internal, potential and kinetic energies.
Assuming the potential and kinetic energies of gas to be dP 1 dV
kP qlo kP b P b P qli
negligible, from the above equation the change in internal dt Vg dT
energy in time dt can be computed as T gb PV g PV g PV g hA
k mgi k mgo T g T l 19
dU g dQ dW dH g 10 T gM g Mg cv M g T g
Change in internal energy can also be expressed as a func- The rate of change of oil temperature is obtained from en-
tion of mass and temperature change and dened as below: ergy balance in terms of leakage oil temperature and heat
transferred from the gas. The increase of oil temperature
dU g cv M g dT g cv T g dM g 11 in the working chambers is due to heat gained from the
The change of enthalpy due to leakage can be expressed as leakage oil (which is at higher temperature) and the heat
gained from the gas under compression.
dH g cp T gb dM gi cp T g dM go 12
Assuming the potential and kinetic energies to be negli-
The gas work may be expressed in terms of geometrical vol- gible, the enthalpy change of oil in the working chamber
ume change, and oil volume change due to leakage. Since can be expressed as follows:
the oil is an incompressible uid, the gas work is expressed dH l dW l dQ dJ l 20
as
where dJ1 is the heat lost by the leaked oil.
dW P dV Pqlo dt P bi qli dt 13
The enthalpy change of oil in time dt may be expressed
Heat exchange between the gas and the oil in time dt is as
assumed to follow the Newtons law of cooling and is dH l M l cl dT l 21
expressed as
The work done by the oil is zero (i.e dW = 0), since oil is an
dQ hAT g T l dt 14 incompressible uid.
N. Seshaiah et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 145155 149
The heat gained by the oil in time dt is given by the (2) The gas/oil mixture ratio is same in all leakage paths
expression except at the lobe tip clearance and equal to the mix-
dQ hAT g T l dt 22 ture ratio passing through discharge port.
The oil leakage in to the working chamber is at higher tem- The apparent ratio of specic heats of oil and gas mix-
perature than the oil in the cavity. The energy lost by ture is calculated from Ref. [4]
leaked oil is given by the expression
cp /cl
dJ l mli cl T lb T l dt 23 b 27
cv /cl
Substituting Eqs. (21)(23) in Eq. (20), the rate of change The modied gas constant of the mixture is also calculated
of oil temperature is obtained as follows: using Ref. [4]
dT l mli hA R
T lb T l T g T l 24 Rm 28
dt M l M l cl 1/
The rate of change of oil mass in the working chamber due The mass ratio of oil to gas in the working chambers as
to leakage as follows: well as through all leakage paths is homogeneous and equal
dM l to the mixture ratio in the working volume [5] and is ex-
mli mlo 25 pressed as below:
dt
Ml ml
/ 29
2.3. Leakage calculation of gas and oil M g mg
The average leakage area is determined by multiplying
Leakage is a major concern in screw compressors. The sealing line length with an average gap (clearance) for each
major leakage paths identied during compression process type of leakage. Normally, the average gap/clearance is
are leakage through interlobe clearance, through blowhole, determined from the actual clearance measurements in
rotor tip-housing clearance and clearance between rotor the compressor. The discharge or ow coecients are
discharge end and casing wall [57]. Leakage mass through empirically selected to account in the presence of oil.
interlobe clearance will go directly into the suction cham- At the lobe tip, it is assumed that the clearance lls with
bers. Except at the lobe tip clearance, leakage gas and oil the oil due to the action of centrifugal force, and the oil
are uniformly mixed and the ow is isolated from any heat leakage ow is in single phase. The leakage ow rate of
exchange with their surroundings while maintaining ther- oil can be calculated using the equation of incompressible
mal equilibrium. In this study, the leakage rate is assumed viscous ow through a narrow gap [10] as follows:
to follow the well-known equation for ow through a con-
vergent nozzle [8,9] V t a P 1 P 2 a3
mlr Sql 30
v 2 12ll wt
u 2 b1
u2b rb r b
CAc P 1 t The leakage gas mass rate into the working chambers is
m mg ml p through leading blowhole, and through clearance between
T1 b 1Rm
b1
b discharge end of rotors and casing wall from male and
2 female rotor leading cavities. It can be calculated using
for r > 26
b1 the below expression:
values of dgdT
ev
for air and helium are 0.0026 K1 and 1.02
1 s
0.0025 K respectively (as shown by the straight lines in 1.01
the gures). The experimental heat transfer coecients 1
for air and helium are found to be 2.141 kW/m2 K, and 0.99
1.4656 kW/m2 K respectively. 0.98
However, there is no exact information available con- 300 304 308 312 316 320 324
cerning the heat transfer area. Fujiwara and Osada [4] Suction temperature (K)
dened the representative heat transfer area between gas
Fig. 4. Experimental volumetric eciency shown against suction temper-
and oil as below: ature (eciencies are relative to suction temperature of 302 K).
2=3
A V t1 36
The time for suction process depends on male rotor rota- 2.5. Time for compression process
tion speed and dened as follows:
The time for compression and discharge process
1 depends on male wrap angle, male rotor rotational speed
ts 37
Nm and number of male lobes.
Fig. 2. A view of the experimental setup used to measure various operating parameters of screw compressor.
N. Seshaiah et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 145155 151
The time taken for compression and discharge process in Theoretical volumetric eciency in terms of mass ow rate
seconds is given by the expression can be dened as
mdt
1 uU 1 gtv 46
C 38 mt
N m 360 nm
The experimental gas mass ow rate will be less than the
2.6. Total cycle time for suction and compression processes theoretical inducted mass rate due to imperfect nature of
ports, wall friction and other frictional losses apart from
The time for the entire compression process including leakage loses. Experimental volumetric eciency may be
suction and compression stages also depends on the male calculated after measuring the actual discharged mass ow
wrap angle, male rotor rotational speed and the number rate.
of male lobes. The experimental volumetric eciency is be dened as
This cycle time in unites of seconds can be expressed as me
gev 47
below: mt
1 uU 1
s 1 39 3.2. Adiabatic eciency
Nm 360 nm
The net gas mass leakage rate from a pair of male and 4. Outline of computer program
female rotor grooves is calculated as given below:
At steady state, all the changes in the compressor work-
mgl mgi mgo 43
ing chambers/cavities are related to rotor turning, and the
The total gas mass leakage rate depends on the number of state in a groove varies as function of the rotor turning
lobes on the male rotor and its rotational speed. The net angle/time. Therefore, if the change in a state of one pair
leakage rate per second is dened by the relation of grooves is calculated, the states in all the grooves can
be known. All the equations obtained above are used for
mgt mgl N m nm 44 suction and discharge process simulation. Inputs required
The theoretical discharged gas mass rate at an average suc- for simulation are listed in Tables 1 and 2. For the sake
tion condition can be estimated as below: of simplicity, the outlet pressure (discharge pressure) is
assumed to be constant. The ow chart for the computer
mdt mt mgt 45 program employed to model the governing equations is
152 N. Seshaiah et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 145155
Yes
Calculate volumetric and 5.2. Uncertainty in determination of adiabatic eciency
adiabatic efficiency
The uncertainty in the measurement of adiabatic e-
ciency is computed as below:
Stop s
2 2
ogea ogea
Fig. 5. Flow diagram for solution of governing equations of a screw Dgea DAe DAs
compressor. oAe oAs
N. Seshaiah et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 145155 153
(v %)
90
and the uncertainty associated in measuring the system
power is calculated as 88
s
2 2
oAs oAs 86
DAs Dne Dte
one ote
84
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
One data point from the test facility has been taken from
Pressure ratio (Pd /Ps)
the multiple data of various measurable parameters such
as suction and discharge pressure, temperature, RPM of Fig. 6. Variation of volumetric eciency with discharge pressure at a xed
male rotor, time taken for a specied number of revolu- injected oil temperature and other inlet conditions.
tions of energy meter, and ow rate measurement. The
average value of the samples at same operating condi- eciency at higher discharge pressures is negligible. This
tions is recorded as a data point. The standard deviation happens because the screw compressor does not have any
of the average value is recorded as a component of uncer- clearance volume at the end of compression process. Our
tainty for that data point. This component represents result is similar to those results obtained by Osada and
the observed random eect associated with a particular Fujiwara [4] and by Stosic et al. [12]. The dierence in the-
measurement. oretical and experimental values is attributed to be imper-
As an example, for air, the uncertainties in the measure- fect nature of ports, wall friction and other frictional losses
ment of various parameters are observed as follows: apart from leakage loss. Variation of adiabatic eciency
DVm = 0.1 L/min; DPs = 0.001 bar; DPd = 0.0015 bar; with discharge pressure is estimated using the procedure
DTs = 0.2 C; DNm = 0.4 rev/s; Dme = 0.015 kg/min; described and shown in Fig. 7. The nature of change of adi-
Dne = 0.12 rev/min; Dte = 0.02 s; Dmt = 0.017 kg/min. abatic eciency with discharge pressure is similar for
Substituting the above values of dierent measurable helium and air. The gure shows that there exists an opti-
quantities and the corresponding uncertainties in the rele- mum pressure ratio for the highest adiabatic eciency.
vant equations, the uncertainties in the measurement of The inuence of interlobe clearance on the PV diagram
volumetric and adiabatic eciency are calculated. of a 5 + 6 rotor combination using air and helium as a
The error in the measurement of volumetric and adia- working media is presented in Figs. 8 and 9 respectively.
batic eciency for air are calculated to be The nature of the PV diagram is similar to those of Refs.
[8,13] for adiabatic compression. The result shows that the
Dgev 0:054 for gev 0:89 area of PV diagram decreases with increase of interlobe
Dgea 0:039 for gea 0:5781 clearance. The decrease is more severe for helium than
for air. This is because of the higher decrease of mass in
An error analysis has been performed for all sets of the compression chamber caused by the increased interlobe
readings and the level of uncertainties is found to be of gas leakage at higher interlobe clearance. Helium being a
the same order. Conservative estimates of the uncertainties,
which are generally applicable to all the test results, are as
follows: air (exp)
62 Air (calculated) Tli =308K
Dgev Helium (exp)
Helium (calculated)
6:0% 58
gev
54
and
50
(a%)
Dgea 46
7:0%
gea
42
38
6. Discussion
34
11 650
e=0.03mm Tg, Ml/Mg=40
Tli=308K;RPM=4350 Tl, Ml/Mg=40 Pd /Ps =8.65;RPM=4350
10 e=0.09mm Tg, Ml/Mg=50
e=0.12mm 600 Tl, Ml/Mg=50
9 Tg, Ml/Mg=60 Discharge
Temperature (K)
Tl, Ml/Mg=60
port opens
8 550 Tg, Ml/Mg=70
Tl, Ml/Mg=70
Tg, Ml/Mg=80
7 500
Tl, Ml/Mg=80 Temp. Profile
Tg, Ml/Mg=90
Pd /Ps
of Gas
6 Tl, Ml/Mg=90
Tg, Ml/Mg=100
5 450 Tl, Ml/Mg=100
Tg, Ml/Mg=110
Tl, Ml/Mg=110
4 400
Tg, Ml/Mg=120
Tl, Ml/Mg=120 Temp. Profile
3 of Oil
350
2
1 300
0 0 0.002 0.003 0.005 0.006 0.008 0.009 0.011 0.012 0.014 0.015
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 Compression time (s)
Vg /V t1
Fig. 11. Variation of gas and oil temperatures during compression process
Fig. 8. Eect of interlobe clearance on PV diagram prole of air at a at dierent oil to gas mass ratio of helium at a xed pressure ratio and inlet
xed injected oil temperature and inlet conditions. conditions.
6
5 heat transfer coecient value (1.4656 kW/m2 K). The value
4 of oil to gas mass ratio used in the simulation model are
3 derived from the experimental data. This ratio is much
2 higher for helium compared to air. The theoretical values
1 of gas temperatures obtained during compression process
0
0 0. 1 0. 2 0. 3 0. 4 0. 5 0. 6 0. 7 0. 8 0.9 1
(for both air and helium) are higher than the expected val-
ues. This is because it has been assumed that during com-
Vg/Vt1
pression process, the heat of compression is transferred
Fig. 9. Eect of interlobe clearance on PV diagram prole of helium at a only to oil. In reality, oil and gas are mixed and a signi-
xed injected oil temperature and inlet conditions. cant fraction of the heat will be transferred to the screw
rotors and the casing. In fact, the compressor system has
low molecular weight gas can easily escape through narrow a cooling mechanism, where the heat of compression is
gap leading to higher leakage loss. continuously dissipated to the environment.
The inuence of injected oil quantity on temperature of The inuence of interlobe clearance and rotational speed
gas and oil is shown in Figs. 10 and 11 for air and helium of male rotor is presented in Fig. 12. The decrease of volu-
respectively. It is observed that enhancement of oil to gas metric eciency with an increase of interlobe clearance is
mass ratio beyond a certain limit, has little eect on tem- more severe at lower rpm for helium than air as shown in
perature of the compressed gas. Most of the heat of gas gure, because of its lower molecular weight, the gas can
600 RPM=3000(Air)
Tg, Ml/Mg=10
95 Pd /Ps =8.65;Tli =308K RPM=4350(Air)
Tl, Ml/Mg=10 Pd /Ps =8.65;RPM=4350 RPM=5000(Air)
Tg, Ml/Mg=12
RPM=3000(He)
550 Tl, Ml/Mg=12
RPM=4350(He)
Tg, Ml/Mg=14
85
Temperature (K)
Tl, Ml/Mg=18
Tg, Ml/Mg=20
75
450 Tl, Ml/Mg=20 Temp. Profile
Tg, Ml/Mg=22 of Gas
Tl, Ml/Mg=22
Tg, Ml/Mg=24 65
400 Tl, Ml/Mg=24
Tg, Ml/Mg=26
Tl, Ml/Mg=26 Temp. Profile
of Oil 55
350
300 45
0 0.002 0.003 0.005 0.006 0.008 0.009 0.011 0.012 0.014 0.015 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16
Compression time (s) Interlobe clearance (mm)
Fig. 10. Variation of gas and oil temperatures during compression process Fig. 12. Inuence of RPM on volumetric eciency with interlobe
at dierent oil to gas mass ratio and inlet conditions. clearance at a xed injected oil temperature and inlet condition.
N. Seshaiah et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 27 (2007) 145155 155
100 soring this work. The technical inputs from Mr. Trilok
RPM=3000(He)
Pd /Ps =8.65;Tli =308K RPM=4350(He) Singh, Head Cryogenics Division, BARC are also grate-
RPM=5000(He)
96 RPM=3000(Air) fully acknowledged. The authors are thankful to the
RPM=4350(Air)
RPM=5000(Air) Mechanical Engineering Department, NIT, Rourkela, for
providing all testing facilities and guidance.
92
(tv %)
References
88
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