A METHOD TO DETERMINE THE MASS FLOW TO RECIPROCATING COMPRESSORS

Abstract

To establish the mass flow to a reciprocating compressor there are several relationships used in the construction and analysis of these types of compressors. The use of relationships is based on the geometric elements of the compressor. It is also necessary to know the composition of the gas and the operating conditions with which: the adiabatic exponent, the volumetric efficiencies and the compressibility factor are determined. The paper aims to establish the compressor mass flow with the help of modern means. The modeling was done in the LMS Amesim program. We use elements from the library of program to create a virtual model of the compression system. A comparison is made with the results obtained by the classical methods. The results show that there are no big differences between the values of the mass flow obtained through the usual relations and those obtained based on the realized model, that includes the main elements necessary for a precise calculation. However, the proposed method opens a wider horizon of understanding of the compression system through direct correspondence with the real model and the graphical possibilities of displaying the time variation of the system characteristics.