Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
The performance of a suction valve installed on the piston of a variable-speed reciprocating compressor
Submission Author:
Willian Silva , SC , Brazil
Co-Authors:
Willian Silva, Cesar Deschamps
Presenter: Willian Silva
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-0349
Abstract
The suction valve is usually installed on the cylinder head of small reciprocating compressors. However, due to the current trend of miniaturizing compressors, an alternative is to install the suction valve on the piston head in order to increase the valve passage area. This article reports an investigation concerning the performance of the suction placed on the cylinder head and piston for different compressor speeds. A validated numerical model was used to simulate the compressor for both configurations under different operating conditions. The results showed that the suction valve dynamics is very sensitive to changes in the compressor speed and can significantly affect the compressor performance. Furthermore, we found that valves with the same passage area and dynamic characteristics perform worse when installed on the piston head in comparison with the valve on the cylinder head. Despite significantly reducing the compressor volumetric efficiency, the suction gas superheating associated with the valve on the piston was not influenced by the compressor speed. The findings of this study provide valuable information for the design and optimization of variable-speed compressors as far as efficiency and reliability are concerned.
Keywords
Reciprocating compressor, Suction valve, superheating, exergetic efficiency, Volumetric Efficiency
