Reciprocating Compressor

  INTRODUCTION
Compressors are work absorbing devices which are used for
increasing pressure of fluid at the expense or work done on fluid. 
The device/ machine used for compressing air are called air
compressors. Compressors are invariably used for all
applications requiring high pressure air.
Some of popular applications of compressor are, for driving
pneumatic tools and air operated equipments, spray painting,
compressed air engine, supercharging surface cleaning,
refrigeration and air conditioning, chemical industry etc.
compressors are supplied with low pressure air (or any fluid) at
inlet which comes out as high pressure air (or any fluid) at outlet.

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 Work required for increasing pressure of air is
available from the prime mover driving the
compressor.
Generally, electric motor, internal combustion
engine or steam engine, turbine etc. are used as
prime movers.
Compressors are similar to fans and blowers but
differ in terms of pressure ratios.
Fan is said to have pressure ratio up to 1.1 and
blowers have pressure ratio between 1.1 to 4
while compressors have pressure ratios more
than 4.
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CLASSIFICATION OF COMPRESSORS
Types of Compressors

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 Compressors can be classified in the following
different ways.
(a)Based on principle of operation: Based on the
principle of operation compressors can be
classified as.
1)Positive displacement compressor.
2)Non-positive displacement compressors. 
In positive displacement compressors the
compression is realized by displacement of solid
boundary and preventing fluid by solid boundary
from flowing back in the direction of pressure
gradient.
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 Due to solid wall displacement these are capable of
providing quite large pressure ratios.
Positive displacement compressors can be further
classified based on the type of mechanism used for
compression.
These can be
1. Reciprocating type positive displacement compressors
2. Rotary type positive displacement compressors. 
Reciprocating compressors generally, employ piston-
cylinder arrangement where displacement of piston in
cylinder causes rise in pressure. Reciprocating
compressors are capable of giving large pressure ratios
but the mass handling capacity is limited or small.
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 Reciprocating compressors may also be single
acting compressor or double acting compressor.
Single acting compressor has one delivery stroke
per revolution while in double acting there are two
delivery strokes per revolution of crank shaft.
Rotary compressors employing positive
displacement have a rotary part whose boundary
causes positive displacement of fluid and thereby
compression. Rotary compressors of this type are
available in the names as given below;
1. Roots blower
2. Vane type compressors
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 Rotary compressors of above type are capable of running at
higher speed and can handle large mass flow rate than
reciprocating compressors of positive displacement type. 
Non-positive displacement compressors, also called as steady
flow compressors use dynamic action of solid boundary for
realizing pressure rise. Here fluid is not contained in definite
volume and subsequent volume reduction does not occur as
in case of positive displacement compressors.
Non-positive displacement compressor may be of ‘axial flow
type’ or ‘centrifugal type’ depending upon type of flow in
compressor.
 
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(b) Based on number of stages: Compressors may also be
classified on the basis of number of stages. Generally, the
number of stages depend upon the maximum delivery pressure.
Compressors can be single stage or multistage. Normally
maximum compression ratio of 5 is realized in single stage
compressors. For compression ratio more than 5 the multistage
compressors are used. 
Type values of maximum delivery pressures generally available
from different type of compressor are,
(i) Single stage Compressor, for delivery pressure upto 5 bar.
(ii) Two stage Compressor, for delivery pressure between 5 to 35
bar
(iii) Three stage Compressor, for delivery pressure between 35 to
85 bar.
(iv) Four stage compressor, for delivery pressure more than 85
bar 8
(c) Based on Capacity of compressors : Compressors
can also be classified depending upon the capacity
of Compressor or air delivered per unit time.
Typical values of capacity for different compressors
are given as;
(i) Low capacity compressors, having air delivery
capacity of 0.15 m3/s or less
(ii) Medium capacity compressors, having air
delivery capacity between 0.15 to 5 m3/s.
(iii) High capacity compressors, having air delivery
capacity more than 5 m3/s
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 (d) Based on highest pressure developed:
Depending upon the maximum pressure available from compressor
they can be classified as low pressure, medium pressure, high pressure
and super high pressure compressors.
Typical values of maximum pressure developed for different
compressors are as under:
(i) Low pressure compressor, having maximum pressure up to 1 bar
(ii) Medium pressure compressor, having maximum pressure from 1 bar
to 8 bar
(iii) High pressure compressor, having maximum pressure from 8 to 10
bar
(iv) Super high pressure compressor, having maximum pressure more
than 10 bar.
 
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 Reciprocating Compressors
Reciprocating Compressor has piston cylinder arrangement

Reciprocating Compressor
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 Reciprocating Compressor has piston, cylinder, inlet
valve, exit valve, connecting rod, crank, piston pin,
crank pin and crank shaft. Inlet valve and exit valves
may be of spring loaded type which get opened and
closed due to pressure differential across them.
Let us consider piston to be at top dead centre (TDC)
and move towards bottom dead centre (BDC).
Due to this piston movement from TDC to BDC
suction pressure is created causing opening of inlet
valve.
With this opening of inlet valve and suction pressure
the atmospheric air enters the cylinder.
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 Air gets into cylinder during this stroke and is
subsequently compressed in next stroke with both inlet
valve and exit valve closed.
Both inlet valve and exit valves are of plate type and
spring loaded so as to operate automatically as and when
sufficient pressure difference is available to cause
deflection in spring of valve plates to open them.
After piston reaching BDC it reverses its motion and
compresses the air inducted in previous stroke.
Compression is continued till the pressure of air inside
becomes sufficient to cause deflection in exit valve.
At the moment when exit valve plate gets lifted the
exhaust of compressed air takes place.
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This piston again reaches TDC from where downward
piston movement is again accompanied by suction.
This is how reciprocating compressor keeps on
working as flow device. In order to counter for the
heating of piston-cylinder arrangement during
compression the provision of cooling the cylinder is
there in the form of cooling jackets in the body.
Reciprocating compressor described above has
suction, compression and discharge as three
prominent processes getting completed in two strokes
of piston or one revolution of crank shaft.

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 Thermodynamic Analysis 
Compression of air in compressor may be carried out
following number of thermodynamic processes such as
isothermal compression, polytropic compressor or
adiabatic compressor.
Theoretical cycle is shown neglecting clearance volume
but in actual cycle clearance volume can not be
negligible. Clearance volume is necessary in order to
prevent collision of piston with cylinder head,
accommodating valve mechanism etc.,
Compression process is shown by process1-2, 1-21, 1-211
and 1-2111 following isothermal, polytropic and adiabatic
processes.
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On P-V diagram process 4-1 shows
the suction process followed by
compression during 1-2 and
discharge through compressor is
shown by process 2-3. 
Air enters compressor at pressure
p1 and is compressed up to p2.
Compression work requirement
can be estimated from the area
below the each compression
process. Area on p-V diagram
shows that work requirement shall
be minimum with isothermal
process 1-2”. Work requirement is
maximum with process 1-2 ie.,
adiabatic process.
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 As a designer one shall be interested in a compressor
having minimum compression work requirement.
Therefore, ideally compression should occur isothermally
for minimum work input. In practice it is not possible to
have isothermal compression because constancy of
temperature during compression can not be realized.
Generally, compressors run at substantially high speed
while isothermal compression requires compressor to run
at very slow speed so that heat evolved during
compression is dissipated out and temperature remains
constant.
Actually due to high speed running of compressor the
compression process may be assumed to be near adiabatic
or polytropic process following law of compression as
PVn=C with of ‘n’ varying between 1.25 to 1.35 for air.
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Compression process following three processes is also
shown on T-s diagram in Fig. it is thus obvious that
actual compression process should be compared with
isothermal compression process.
A mathematical parameter called isothermal
efficiency is defined for quantifying the degree of
deviation of actual compression process from ideal
compression process.
Isothermal efficiency is defined by the ratio is
isothermal work and actual indicated work in
reciprocating compressor.
Isothermal work
Isothermal efficiency =
Actual indicated Work
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Practically, compression process is attempted to be closed
to isothermal process by air/water cooling, spraying cold
water during compression process. In case of multistage
compression process the compression in different stages
is accompanied by intercooling in between the stages.
P2 V2 
Mathematically, for the compression work following
polytropic process, PVn=C. Assuming negligible clearance
volume the cycle work done.

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Wc = Area on p-V diagram
  p2V2  p1V1 
Wc =  p2V2     p1V1
  n  1 
1 n  
= 
 n 1   p 2 V 2  p V 
1 1 
   
  n 1 
  
 n 
      p 2   n 
 
 1 1 
p V  1

 n 1  p 1 
 
  n 1 
  
 n    p2    
n
  mRT1    1

 n 1  p1 
 
 n   p2V2 
  p1V1    1
 n 1  p1V1 

 n 
  mR  T2  T1 
 n 1 22
In case of compressor having isothermal compression process,
n = 1, ie., p1V1 = p2V2

Wiso  p 2V2  p1V1 ln r  p1V1

Wadiabatic   m  h2  h1 
p1V1 ln r
 iso 
 n 1

 n    p2  n
  p1V1     1
 n 1  p1  
 
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