Proceedings of the National Conference on Emerging Trends In Mechanical Engineering 2k13

372 NCETIME 2k13

ALTERNATIVE DESIGN FOR RECIPROCATING COMPRESSOR
DRIVEN BY USING A FLUID PISTON TO OVERCOME LIMITATIONS

[1]
R.Ayyappan,
[2]
C.Srinivasan

[1]
Sr. Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Aksheyaa College of Engineering, Pulidivakkam, Kancheepurm-District
e-mail: Prof.ayyappan@gmail.com

[2]
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Aksheyaa College of Engineering, Pulidivakkam, Kancheepurm-District
e-mail: c.srinivasan86@gmail.com
[*]
corresponding author
Abstract:
In this paper alternative design of a reciprocating compressor driven by a fluid piston
drive is presented and its advantages are discussed. The compressor, which is 100 mm in
diameter and 300 mm stroke length has a simple structure consisting of two compressor
chamber, a gear pump driven by a electric motor, self acting check valve, and two 3/2 DC
valves. Using oil as working medium, the simple fluid system enables a variable compression
ratio. With a working voltage of 230V for the control system as a preliminary work, the device
gives flow rates of 0.2m
3
/ min. The investigational efforts have done and the performance
analysis was done.

Keywords- Design, fluid piston, control, valve, friction, noise, reliability, repeatability, safety,
compression.


INTRODUCTION
The investigation of compressor is
brought upon by the need for an improved
power source for fluid power industries.
Current industries utilize rotary compressors
for larger mass flow rate and lesser pressure
applications. But in the case of high pressure
application and lesser mass flow rate
reciprocating compressors are the middle
ground. But the existing systems have
strong limitations on the work output and
the life of the machineries. A more
appropriate energy source of fluid power
automation could be coupled to a linear
pneumatic actuator to provide greater energy
density than rotary devices.
[1, 4]


The goal of the project is to reduce the
maintenance cost, noise, unexpected failure
and increase the performance of the system.
1. Size and Weight
The total volume of the device should be
able to fit on any irregular shape Due to the
flexibility of compression chamber, lighter
in weight casing and frictionless fluid piston
is desired to Increase the maneuverability
and efficiency of the system.

2. Low Noise
Noise is a form of energy loss and is
therefore a factor that should be minimized
in order to increase the efficiency of the
compressor system. Also, noise in the
system is an environmental hazard in some
cases. Because the inertia driven device
decreases the pressure of the outlet, the
Proceedings of the National Conference on Emerging Trends In Mechanical Engineering 2k13

373 NCETIME 2k13

discharge of these gasses creates minimal
noise when exiting. Flexibility of the fluid is
also becomes important to reduce the noise.
Compression along with a flexibility in
movement causes the device to remain
stationary, reducing frictional and noise
losses. Another source of noise is the
collision of the free piston striking against a
wall and friction created while running
against the wall.

3. I nertia Driven
The Fluid piston Compressor is driven
by a fluid piston that is not rigidly attached
to a crankshaft. It uses the kinetic energy of
a fluid mass to compress air. A free piston
allows the entire energy for compression
created by the fluid pump. The potential
energy in the form of high pressure
incompressible fluid compresses the
compressible gaseous fluid. Whereas, a
kinematic device would have wasted energy
in the form of friction due to the crankshaft
link pulling the piston back into place. Also,
the inertia driven device allows for the
compression of gasses to discharge at lesser
than reciprocating compressors, allows for
minimized discharge noise.

4. Maintenance Cost
In the higher pressure applications the force
acting on the crank shaft, push rod, journal
bearings, piston pin, and cylinder walls are
more due to the unbalanced forces acting on
it. It cause uneven wear and rapid wear of
mating surfaces leads to the failure of the
consecutive parts in a linkage or
mechanisms. This will leads to increase the
maintenance cost of the entire operating
environment. By the exertion the
maintenance cost of the entire system is
almost reduced.

5. Automatic Cooling
The fluid piston compressor must allow
the compression chamber to cool, in order to
provide for the most efficient compression.
In many compressors this is brought about
by some type of separate cooling device, and
therefore increases the weight and
complexity of the design. In order for
automatic cooling to exist, the pressure
inside the combustion chamber must
decrease to lower than atmospheric pressure,
and cool ambient air is drawn into the
chamber through a check valve. This
cooling of the compression chamber allows
more volume of air into the next stroke of
the compressor to push out a greater amount
of air out of compressor than if the chamber
was hot.

6. Valve losses
The actual indicated horsepower is built
upon the base of ideal horsepower and
includes the thermodynamic losses in the
cylinder. These thermodynamic losses (fluid
losses) are summed up under the general
term compression efficiency. The major
factor involved in determining the
compression efficiency is the valve loss or
pressure drop through the inlet and
discharge valves. These fluid losses are a
function of gas density and valve velocity.
The suction and discharge pressures and the
molecular weight establish the density. The
valve velocity is fixed by the valve area
available in the selected cylinders and by the
piston speed. Valve velocity is normally
stated in feet per minute; it is the ratio of
piston area to valve area per cylinder end,
multiplied by feet per minute piston speed.

In the fluid piston compressor the
opening and valve closing are done in a
prolonged time, so that the frictional
turbulence during opening and closing of
valve in various operating speeds are
eradicated. The existing compressors are
operated beyond the rated speed the
malfunction and there is no pumping of the
working fluid.
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7. Volumetric efficiency
By adopting the said methodology the
volumetric efficiency is increased and
achieved by introducing the control systems
and sensors in the appropriate place of work.
The expansion volume and the impact of
piston on the wall due to clearance are
decreased by the adopting proposed
methodology.

8. Mechanical efficiency
The friction in-between the walls and
piston rings and linkages are entirely
eliminated by means of the fluid piston the
performance of the entire system is
increased.

9. Flexibility of proposed system;
In the physical exertion it is observed that
the above problems were eradicated and the
improvement in the said efficiencies by
adopting the precision sensing elements with
controlling devices. In examination of the
past studies and proposed work results
indicates prolonged life and eco-friendly
machinery in the middle ground with
higher pressure can be obtained by adopting
the said methodology.

Figure 1 Load force for various
machineries

10. Reduction of pressure pulsation:

In the existing system the pulsation of
pressure inside the valve body and
discharge pipe produces more losses and
can be accompanied by an increase in
shaking forces (or unbalanced forces) [14].
It illustrates that shaking forces shall be
determined and controlled and piping and
vessels properly supported. The margin of
separation between the mechanical natural
frequency (MNF) of system (including
piping and bottles) and excitation frequency
is 20% and MNF shall be greater than 2.4
times maximum run speed [16,18]. If not
meet limits, the force response (including
stress analysis) is required.
The cylinder gas forces (also called frame
stretch or cylinder stretch force) can be
significant source of excitation (can cause
high frequency vibration on the bottles and
piping close to the compressor) and lead to
excessive pulsation bottle vibration even if
the pulsation shaking forces meet limits.
Flow induced pulsation is rarely seen [14].
API 618 Design Approach 3 and less
rigorous analysis, to control pulsation and
shaking (unbalanced) force levels and
avoiding mechanical resonance can result in
an optimized design [14]. Pulsation and
vibration analysis report shall include Time
Domain (TD) and Frequency Domain (FD)
simulations, Time Domain (TD) plots of key
forces and pressure pulsation, dynamic
pressure drop, models including mounting
details (mounting plate, bolts, localized skid,
etc) and shell flexibility (nozzle connection
flexibility), calculated cylinder stretch
forces, mode shape of bottles and piping and
compressor stiffness assumption compressor
frame modelled as flexible support) [18].

11. Main bearing monitoring
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Abnormal loading conditions of
reciprocating machines cause increase in
temperature that overheat all sliding parts.
Continuous heating leads to wear and tear of
moving parts rapidly and unevenly this leads
to produce noise and vibrations after a
prolonged time of usage these shaking
forces causes damage to the main bearings .
considering all the above factors are
acquired and compared with the existing
design and normal operating specifications
inorder to reduce potential malfunctions the
design changes were made.
12. Design changes :
Sometimes due to the process requirements,
reciprocating compressor shall be operate at
low suction pressures and full design flow at
normal discharge. It can have the strong
effect on compressor sizing especially frame
rating and motor capacity (more than 35 %
of increase in power due to 20 % drop in
pressure). Latest experiences recommended
respecting this condition as design point in
basic design to avoid costly future changes.
The fluid piston compressor is proposed to
obtain the variable mass flow rate at the
constant running speed to eliminate the
design changes and power losses due to
offload conditions.



13. Noise reduction:
It is important to note the simplicity of this
Fluid piston compressor while meeting the
design criteria. It has eliminated discharge
noise problems by discharge high -pressure
gasses, has no leakages were found in
compressors, can start and stop at will, has
an automatic cooling process, small in
design, and is an inertia driven device.
However, this device does create some
problems of its own through fixing
conventional type of reciprocating
machineries.

The force with which they hold by the
spring pressure of the inlet and outlet valve
opening and closing of chamber is lesser and
in a gradual manner so the impact on the
valve seats and valve can be minimised and
pitting and valve flutter can be reduced
drastically. The problem of turbulent exit at
the discharge and wall friction due to
turbulent exit were minimised by the valve
at gradual discharge of air.


14. Elimination Rod drop:
The piston rod assembly drops during
operation due to normal rider band wear
sometimes due to dirt or liquid in the gas
stream ,cylinder valve problem ,
insufficient lubrication , cylinders running
unloaded over prolonged periods of time
can cause drastic and sometimes sudden
reduction in rider band life rider bands
must therefore be changed periodically to
prevent contact between the piston and
Figure 2 Snap Shot of Fluid Piston Compressor
Proceedings of the National Conference on Emerging Trends In Mechanical Engineering 2k13

376 NCETIME 2k13

cylinder , as this would seriously damage
both components and results in expensive
repair. Replacement of rider bands solely an
hour of operation is not the most efficient
method. By replacement of the above
mechanisms by means of the fluid piston the
above problems were minimized and the
replacement costs of the components are
null and void.
Results and Discussion:

From the experimental results the
improved volumetric efficiency for the
given input shows the better performance at
lesser pressure ratio and higher mechanical
efficiency for the given input. The various
problems faced and the remedial alternative
design for the above problems and the
alternative methodology and its benefits are
addressed in this paper.

Conclusion
From the past studies of the
problems and remedial solutions it is arrived
and concluded that the fluid piston
compressor plays a vital role in the middle
ground of the linear pneumatic device in the
Morden technological world. By defeating
the limitations of the micro controlled
devices to sense the level of the fluid in
position and controlling of the position of
the fluid may give the most efficient and
economic compression in all the aspects.
These types of compressors are suitable for
compressing the hazardous and flammable
gaseous without any maintenance, if needs
to be safely done by servicing valves
provided in the compression chambers. The
only moving part in the fluid piston
compressor is valves and fluid pump. It does
not require adequate maintenance because it
is an inertia driven machinery. By
introducing the accurate and cheaper sensing
technology leads to the better energy
efficient maintenance free compressors in
the future market.





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