Abstract ▼ AI-Helper

Pulsation is an inherent phenomenon in reciprocating compressors. It interacts with piping to cause vibrations and performance problems. Indiscriminately connecting to a compressor can be dangerous and cost money in the form of broken equipment and piping, poor performance, inaccurate metering, unwa...

Pulsation is an inherent phenomenon in reciprocating compressors. It interacts with piping to cause vibrations and performance problems. Indiscriminately connecting to a compressor can be dangerous and cost money in the form of broken equipment and piping, poor performance, inaccurate metering, unwanted vibration, and sometimes noise. Piping connected to a compressor can materially affect the performance and response. To minimize these detrimental effects, reciprocating compressor system should be equipped by pulsation suppression system. This study discusses pressure pulsation phenomena occurred in a reciprocating compressor system. An experiment applied air compressor unit, as pulsating pressure generator, has been done. The compressor was connected sequentially to a snubber model and pressure tank. Sensor probes were placed on the inlet and outlet pipes of snubber. Compressor was driven by a motor controlled by a frequency regulator. The experiment was conducted by adjusting the regulator at 40Hz. General information about an internal gas flow can be achieved by numerical analysis approach. Information of the velocity, pressure and turbulence kinetic energy distribution are presented in this paper. Based on this result, the design improvement might be done.