Impact of molecular weight and other

parameters on
centrifugal compressor’s Head

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
What and why of presentation
Why this presentation?
◦ This question arises in many engineers’ mind
◦ Information is not available in structured form

What this presentation is about?

◦ What is compressor head, how different from pressure
◦ Effects of various parameters on compressor head
◦ Presentation is limited to centrifugal machines
◦ Supported by real life examples

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
Operating characteristics
Figure 1
Centrifugal compressors rarely work at
single operating point.
They work within an operating envelope
(Fig 1):
◦ Attached envelop is for variable speed
operation.
◦ Operation limited by surge and stonewall
lines and minimum and maximum speeds.

(Centrifugal Compressor Operation – Tony Barletta and Scott W. Golden. www.digitalrefining.com)

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
Head
Head: Energy required to move unit mass of fluid from one point to another, generally
expressed in feet (or lbf-ft/lbM). For compressor it is the work of compressor performed on
a unit mass of the gas or vapor.
Fig 2: Head, produced by compressor impeller, is the product of impeller tip velocity (U)
and gas tangential velocity (V) at impeller exit:
Figure 2
Head = U*V

(Forsthopper’s Best Practice Handbook For Rotating Machinery)

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
 Compressor characteristics: head
vs. capacity
Fig 3 depicts shape of compressor’s characteristic performance curve. Increase in head is caused
at reduced flow rates. Because, in accordance with Fig 2, a lower flow rate reduces relative gas
velocity from Vrel1 to Vrel2, which in turn increases gas tangential velocity from V1 to V2 hence the
head.

Figure 3

(www.compressedairducation.com)

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
 Compressor head – why polytropic?
Two types of ideal compression processes (two extremes (See Fig 4):
Isothermal: compression at constant temp - all heat generated during
compression is removed:
pvn = constant, where n = 1 (hence pv = constant)
Isentropic (reversible adiabatic): no heat transfer during compression,
pvn = constant, where n = k = cp/cv (where k=isentropic exponent)
In real life some heat transfer takes place during Figure 4

compression, resulting in a polytropic process:

Polytropic: falls between the above two processes,
pvn = constant, where (n-1/n) = (k-1)/(k*effpol)
Note: polytropic exponent “n” and polytropic efficiency
“effpol” are provided by compressor manufacturer derived
from actual tests.
Work of compression, being the area under p-v curve, is
minimum for isothermal and maximum for isentropic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compressor
compression (Fig 4).

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
 Head and pressure
Head and Pressure are inter-related as follows, Figure 5

For liquids – via specific gravity (density)

For gases/vapors - via pr, temp, MW,
compressibility, sp. heat ratio
Figure 5: the same differential pressure of 100
psi (or the same pressure ratio of 7.8) produced
by a machine, will create N2 head of 86,359 ft
and water head of 231 ft (or lift 1 lbm of N2 to
86,359 ft compared to 1 lb of water to 231 ft).
This also signifies that impact of MW (and other
parameters on right hand side of the equation)
have much larger impact on gas / vapor head
compared that of sp. gr. on liquid head.
Note the same 114.7 psia pressure at the (Forsthopper’s Best Practice Handbook For Rotating Machinery)

bottom of both columns.

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
Head, pressure ratio – impact of MW
Equation 1

Impact of MW: Equation 1 for compressor head (isentrpic in this case) shows,
if all other parameters on right side are kept constant, increase in MW will
produce a lower head (will require a lower head to produce the same
discharge pressure P2). Figure 6

This is also explained by exit velocity triangle

in Fig 2 earlier – a higher MW causes higher
flow through compressor hence higher Vrel
and lower Vt . A lower Vt , in turn, produces
lower head (speed kept constant).

Inversely, to push a higher MW gas to the

same meters of head, the pressure ratio (or
P2 ) has to increase – Figure 6.
(Forsthopper’s Best Practice Handbook For Rotating Machinery)

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
 Head, pressure ratio – impact of
other parameters

Impact of inlet and discharge pr., and inlet temp

The same impact (as that of MW) is produced if inlet pressure (P1) increases
while other parameters remain unchanged (they also change in real life though).

An inverse impact is produced if inlet temp (T1) or discharge pressure (P2)

increases, while other parameters remain unchanged. Means an increased
suction temp requires compressor to produce a higher head to maintain the
same pressure ratio (typically by increasing compressor speed).

The above explains compressor’s behavior, next slide explains systems’ behavior.

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
System head and impact of MW
Figure 7
Equation 2 provides pipeline / system
head (generic) required to push a given
gas through a given pipeline of length L:
Pipeline of length L

Compressor
Equation 2
http://petrowiki.org/Pressure_drop_evaluation_along_pipelines

P2 = upstream pressure, psia

P3 = downstream pressure, psia
S = specific gravity of gas,
Q = gas flow rate, MMscf/D
Z = compressibility factor for gas Note that an increase in specific gravity (MW) will
require a higher upstream pressure P2 to push the
T = flowing temperature, °R, gas to the same length of pipeline.
f = Moody friction factor
d = pipe ID, in.,
L = pipe length, ft

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
Head, pressure ratio and speed –
impact of MW
Figure 8

According to Equation 1, increase in

specific gravity (MW) causes reduction
in compressor head from H1 to H2, if
speed is kept constant at N1 as in Fig 8
(note that compressor discharge
pressure does not change only head
reduces). However, as per equation 2,
pushing this higher MW gas through
the same pipeline length requires a
higher P2 (which is nothing by
compressor discharge pressure). For
this reason the compressor’s speed
has to be increased to develop the
original head H1 (Fig 8).

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
Real life example – impact of MW on
polytropic head Figure 9

Compressor performance in Fig 9 is a

real life example depicting the impact
of change in MW from 20.83 to 18.72.
Note the changes in polytropic head,
speed and power (yellow highlight).
Note insignificant change in inlet
volume (orange highlight).
Compressor power, being product of
polytropic head and weight flow rate,
does not change significantly due to
decrease in weight flow rate.

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
MW and performance curve’s shape
Figure 10
For a given acfm entering a given impeller
at given speed the magnitude vrel is less
for heavy gas than for a light gas; causing
magnitude vt to be greater.
Since head output is proportional to vt , a
given impeller running at a given speed
will produce more head while
compressing a heavy gas than when
compressing a like acfm of light gas. The
magnitude of difference increases with
increased acfm, so the basic slope of a
given impeller is less steep for heavy gas
than for a light gas.
A Practical Guide to Compressor Technology, Page 391 – Heinz P Bloch
Head-Flow Characteristics of a given stage operating on different MW
gases (Elliot Company, Jeannette, PA)

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
MW and performance curve’s shape (real life example)
Figure 10

Notice the change in slope and

reduction in surge margin (Fig 10)

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018
Thanks
SUDHINDRA TIWARI
LEAD DESIGN ENGINEER – ROTATING EQUIPMENT

IMPACT OF MW AND OTHER PARAMETERS ON CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR’S HEAD - SUDHINDRA TIWARI MAR 2018