Explosive Decompression Resistance of Centrifugal Compressor O-Ring Seals: A Comparative Test Summary and Procedure

1988 ◽  
Vol 110 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. N. Shade ◽  
D. W. Legg

Explosive decompression is a phenomenon that can destroy O-ring sealing elements in high-pressure (>3.4 MPa) natural gas compressors during rapid venting to atmospheric pressure. A test rig and procedure have been developed to identify important parameters influencing O-ring seal explosive decompression failure, consistent with utilization of these seals in high-pressure centrifugal compressors. The test rig and procedure are described and comparative test results presented.

Author(s):  
Wangzhi Zou ◽  
Xiao He ◽  
Wenchao Zhang ◽  
Zitian Niu ◽  
Xinqian Zheng

The stability considerations of centrifugal compressors become increasingly severe with the high pressure ratios, especially in aero-engines. Diffuser is the major subcomponent of centrifugal compressor, and its performance greatly influences the stability of compressor. This paper experimentally investigates the roles of vanes in diffuser on component instability and compression system instability. High pressure ratio centrifugal compressors with and without vanes in diffuser are tested and analyzed. Rig tests are carried out to obtain the compressor performance map. Dynamic pressure measurements and relevant Fourier analysis are performed to identify complex instability phenomena in the time domain and frequency domain, including rotating instability, stall, and surge. For component instability, vanes in diffuser are capable of suppressing the emergence of rotating stall in the diffuser at full speeds, but barely affect the characteristics of rotating instability in the impeller at low and middle speeds. For compression system instability, it is shown that the use of vanes in diffuser can effectively postpone the occurrence of compression system surge at full speeds. According to the experimental results and the one-dimensional flow theory, vanes in diffuser turn the diffuser pressure rise slope more negative and thus improve the stability of compressor stage, which means lower surge mass flow rate.


Author(s):  
C. D. (Charlton) Breon ◽  
D. R. (Daniel) Veth

A turbine-compressor train consisting of a General Electric MS5001 Model R single-shaft gas turbine, a Philadelphia Gear speed-increasing gearbox, and a Dresser-Clark centrifugal compressor was uprated for 30% increased gas throughput. This train is one of thirteen units operated by ARCO Alaska, Inc. for high pressure natural gas injection service in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay Oil Field. The uprate included an in-place conversion of the gas turbine from a Model R to a Model P configuration. This paper describes the engineering, planning, and implementation activities that led up to the successful uprate of this train with only a 24 day equipment outage.


Author(s):  
Colin Rodgers ◽  
Dan Brown

Three 140mm tip diameter centrifugal compressors were designed and tested to determine the one exhibiting the best performance most suitable for eventual application to a small 60KW radial flow type gas turbine. The design features, and stage test results of these three moderately high pressure ratio impellers are presented, together with a comparison of their respective test and CFD computed performance maps.


Author(s):  
Federico Bonzani ◽  
Paolo Gobbo

In order to increase the fuel flexibility of the current design of the SynGas burner [4,5,6], Ansaldo Energia, since the growing requests of the market, performed a R&D financed project to use the SynGas fuel available as the unique fuel to feed the gas turbine. Therefore the new working condition to be fulfilled by the modified SynGas burner are the following: a) ignition; b) acceleration; c) loading at part load; d) change over from diffusion line to main SynGas line. To fulfill with new requirements, the standard V94.2K burners have been modified in order to operate from ignition up to the change over point with a SynGas mixture provided by the coal gasification process of a typical IGCC plant [7]. After the design phase, a experimental test campaign on the new design burner has been performed at atmospheric pressure. In order to validate the test results carried out at actual engine working conditions a further test campaign has been performed at the high pressure consistent with the test rig technical limitations [2.3]. The paper show the results carried out that are really promising to meet the customer requirements.


1971 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 695-702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecil R. Sparks ◽  
D. E. Lindgren

Through the application of fluid dynamic and acoustic theory, the noise generation of a high pressure blowoff can be approximated. The effects of silencer configurations can likewise be predicted through the application of pertinent field data taken to define performance of the silencer components. This paper describes recent test results and their application to improved silencer design for natural gas pipeline applications.


Author(s):  
R. H. Meier ◽  
C. S. Rhea

Experience with factory and field performance testing of centrifugal compressors in natural gas service is presented. The ability of different types of factory test arrangements to closely predict future field performance is compared. Instrumentation requirements for achievement of reasonable accuracy in field testing are defined and discussed. Major aspects of mechanical and aerodynamic performance testing are addressed.


Author(s):  
Jeanne Methel ◽  
William J. Gooding ◽  
John C. Fabian ◽  
Nicole L. Key ◽  
Mark Whitlock

To achieve aggressive specific fuel consumption goals, aircraft engines are tending toward higher overall pressure ratios and higher bypass ratios for turbofans. As sizes decrease to meet these requirements, centrifugal compressors become a viable option as the last stage of the high pressure compressor. The last stages of an axial compressor in a small core engine face reduced efficiency due to the relatively large tip clearances with respect to blade height, and therefore, it may be more appropriate to finish the final compression stage with a low specific speed centrifugal compressor. A new facility, the Centrifugal STage for Aerodynamics Research (CSTAR) Facility, has been developed at Purdue University in cooperation with Rolls-Royce to gain further understanding of the complex aerodynamics found in such centrifugal compressors. The experimental data acquired in this facility will be utilized to develop and validate design tools for centrifugal compressors used in axial-centrifugal high-pressure compressors. The facility models the last (centrifugal) stage of an axial-centrifugal compressor and operates at engine-representative Mach numbers. In this paper, the facility is described in detail, and the baseline steady-state performance of the compressor is presented.


1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. W. Reedy ◽  
R. G. Kirk

The equilibrium position of multi-ring seal assemblies is of major importance to the designer of high pressure centrifugal compressors. Typical computer codes now use a curve-fit of the Short Bearing Sommerfeld Number for eccentricity evaluation with the assumption that all rings in the assembly will always operate at the same eccentricity. The results from the recently developed seal analysis program, SEALS, have shown that the equal eccentricity assumption for multi-ring seals is questionable. This paper will review the analysis procedure used in SEALS, and present the results of an eccentricity evaluation comparison with a seal analysis program currently being used in industry.


Author(s):  
S. V. Ajaicimhan ◽  
Natteri M Sudharsan

Centrifugal compressors find their use in many areas especially in turbochargers which are used extensively in automobiles and in aircrafts and defence systems. This paper presents the design of a complete test facility for testing centrifugal compressors. It starts with design of a Combustor - the driving unit for the test facility. The Centrifugal compressor being tested is a part of a turbocharger. The combustor feeds the Turbine side of the test section with hot gases for running the compressor at desired speeds. This particular choice eliminates the need for the inclusion of heavy speed reducing gears when an electric motor is used as the driving unit. The designed combustor was numerically simulated and subsequently optimized for the given working conditions. The simulated results showed good agreement with the target criteria. Further, the choice and placement of the measuring instruments for the entire test rig and their permissible deviations are listed and finally the basic operating sequence for the entire rig is also drafted for in-house development of automation of the entire test rig thereby making it a complete guide for the setting up of such facility, hitherto establishing a complete guideline of all subsystems which will enable in building such similar facilities in varying magnitudes in the future.


Author(s):  
Nico Petry ◽  
Friedrich Karl Benra ◽  
Sven Koenig

Under unfavorable conditions aerodynamic and aeroacoustic excitation mechanisms may lead to fatigue failures of centrifugal compressor impellers. The mechanisms for consideration are, for example, the arising pressure patterns due to rotor/stator interactions, the so-called Tyler/Sofrin modes, or acoustic resonances in the compressor housing. In a research program, a high-pressure radial compressor has been equipped with a multiplicity of sensors to investigate the excitation and interaction mechanisms in a complete centrifugal compressor stage. The current paper deals with the experimental detection of acoustic resonances in the compressor side cavities and the excitation of these acoustic eigenmodes due to Tyler/Sofrin modes. In this context the test rig and the installed instrumentation are briefly described. The methods of measuring as well as the analyzing techniques for detecting acoustic resonances and evaluating the measurements are presented. In addition, acoustic eigenmodes have been calculated by the finite-element method for the representative numerical test rig parameters. Results are presented and compared to the experimental findings. The accomplished experiments are the first available in open literature showing that the fluid core rotation in the compressor side cavities plays a crucial role for the prediction of the acoustic eigenfrequencies with respect to the rotor frame of reference. Without taking into account the effect of fluid rotation, large deviations between predicted (simulated) and measured acoustic eigenfrequencies would be the result.


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