COMPRESSION AND EXPANSION

OF FLUIDS
• Compressors
- continuous-flow compressors
- Centrifugal and Axial Compressors
- positive displacement compressors
-reciprocating and rotary compressors

• Fans
• Blowers centrifugal or axial-flow units
• Expanders
 Compressors
• Compressors are used to transfer large
volumes of gas while increasing the pressure
of the gas from an inlet condition to pressures
as high as 300 MPa.
 Selection of Compressors
• the volumetric capacity
• head
• discharge pressure
• The selection process must also recognize process
problems with certain gases at elevated temperatures
that could create a potential explosion hazard or
• The admission of small amounts of lubricating oil or
water that would contaminate the process gas
stream.
Centrifugal and Axial Compressors
• They are continuous-flow compressors.
• Centrifugal compressors are used for higher
pressure ratios and lower flow rates compared to
lower-stage pressure ratios and higher flow rates
in axial compressors.
• The pressure ratio in a single-stage centrifugal
compressor is about 1.2:1.
• The pressure ratio of axial flow compressors is
between 1.05:1 and 1.15:1.
• The operating range of a centrifugal
compressor is between that of surge and
choke
• Surge : which is the lower flow limit of stable
operation
• Choke: the maximum flow through the
compressor at a given operating speed
• This operating range is reduced as the
pressure ratio per stage is increased or the
number of stages is increased.
• To increase the surge-to-choke operating
range, most centrifugal compressors use
backward-curved impellers that provide very
low pressure ratios as well as higher
efficiencies.
 Axial-flow compressors
• Axial-flow compressors are mainly used as
compressors for turbines.
• The efficiency of axial compressor is higher
than that of a centrifugal compressor.
• {the flow rates are considerably higher for a
given casing diameter because of the greater
area for the flow path.}
• The operation of the axial-flow compressor is a
function of the rotational speed of the low-aspect
stationary blades and the rotation of the flow in the
rotor.
• The blades are used to diffuse the flow and convert
the velocity increase to a pressure increase.
• Because of the steep characteristics of the head/flow
capacity curve exhibited by the axial compressor, the
operating range is much smaller with a surge point
that often is within 10 percent of the design point.
 Positive Displacement Compressors
• These type of units are essentially volume gas movers with
variable discharge pressures.
• Reciprocating compressors are generally used when a
high-pressure head is requested at a low flow rate.
• Because of the difficulty in preventing gas leakage and
lubricating oil contamination, these units are used for
compression of other gases than air.
• The compressors that are used for compressing gases use a
crosshead that connects the piston rod and the connecting
rod to provide a straight-line motion for the piston rod and
the use of simple packing.
• Intercoolers are inserted between stages in
multistage units.
• These remove the heat of compression
• It reduce the volume of gas going to the next
stage and reducing the power required for the
compression.
Rotary positive displacement compressors

• the straight-lobe,
• screw,
• sliding-vane, and
• liquid-piston machines.
• The volume displaced in any of these units can
only be varied by changing the rotor speed or
through bypassing and wasting some of the
capacity of the units.
• Straight-lobe units are available for pressure
differentials up to about 80 kPa and capacities up
to 2.5 x 104 m3/h.
• The rotary screw compressor can handle
capacities up to about 4.2 x 104 m3/h at pressure
ratios of 4:1 or higher.
• The screw compressor uses the rotation of two
rotors to cause axial progression of successive
sealed cavities of gas through the unit.
• The sliding-vane compressors are available for
operating pressures up to 850 kPa with capacities
up to 3.4 x 103 m3/h. Pressure ratios per stage are
generally limited to 4:1.
• The liquid-piston type of compressor is very
useful when hazardous gases are being
compressed.
• They have also found wide application as
vacuum pumps for wet vacuum service.
 Selection of Fans and Blowers
• Fans are used to move gas volumes at
conditions where the delivery pressure
differential is no more than 3.5 kPa.
• For blowers the pressure differential is slightly
greater but no more than 10 kPa.
• The disk-type fan, similar to a household fan, and
the propeller-type fan are both axial-flow fans.
• In the centrifugal fan, the gas enters in an axial
direction but is discharged in a radial direction.
• These blowers use either a radial, forward-curved
blade or a backward-curved blade.
• The forward curved blade blowers provide the
largest exit gas velocity, but with a low discharge
pressure.
• To obtain a higher discharge pressure, the
backward-curved blade blower is used.
• The radial blade blower is a compromise between
these two blowers.
• The performance of centrifugal blowers varies
with changes in conditions such as temperature,
density, and speed of the gas being handled.
• when the speed of the blower varies
• (1) capacity varies directly as the speed ratio,
(2) pressure varies as the square of the speed
ratio
(3) power required varies as the cube of the
speed ratio.
• When temperature of the gas varies,
• the power required and the pressure vary
inversely as the absolute temperature (assuming
that the speed and capacity are constant).
• When the density of the gas varies,
• the power required and the pressure vary
directly as the density (again, assuming speed
and capacity are constant).
 Selection of Turbines, Expanders, and Other
Drivers
• steam turbines
• gas turbine
• The major variables that affect steam turbine selection
include
• (1) the power and speed of the device that is to be driven,
• (2) the pressure and temperature of the steam available
and its cost,
• (3) the quantity of steam required based on turbine
efficiency (as determined by stage and valve options),
• (4) the control and safety features required.
• the first step in the selection process is to
make an estimate of the steam flow at various
steam pressures by using the following Figure
for a rough estimate of the efficiency.
 gas turbine
• The gas turbine in the simple cycle mode consists of a
compressor (axial or centrifugal) that compresses the air,
a combustor that heats the air, and a turbine that expand
the combustion gases with a resultant power production.
• The power required to compress the air varies from 40 to
60 percent of the total power produced by the turbine.
• The axial turbine is the most widely used gas turbine and
is more efficient than a radial-flow turbine in most
operational regions. Axial-flow turbine efficiencies range
between 88 and 92 percent.
 Expanders
• Radial-flow turboexpanders were developed primarily for the
production of low temperatures, but they can also be used as
power recovery devices.
• These expanders normally are single-stage with combination
impulse-reaction blades.
• These units often operate with small or moderate streams which
dictate a rather high rotational speed up to 500,000 r/min.
Because of their heavy-duty construction, they are resistant to
abuse and provide high reliability.
• Such units can provide efficiencies between 75 to 88 percent,
calculated on the basis of isentropic rather than polytropic
expansion.
 Design Procedures for Compressors
• To properly design any compressor it requires certain
information about the :
• operating conditions—the type of gas, its pressure,
temperature, and molecular weight.
• It also requires knowledge about the corrosive
properties of the gas so that proper material selection
can be made.
• Gas fluctuation due to process instabilities must also
be pinpointed so that the compressor can operate
without surging.
• Most of the compressors operate along a
polytropic path approaching the adiabatic,
compressor, calculations are generally based
on the adiabatic curve given by the equation
of state pvk = constant
• K is the of specific heat at constant pressure to
that at constant volume.
The adiabatic head for a compressor is
expressed as:

Where , Had is the adiabatic head in N-m/kg,

R' the gas constant in kJ/(kg-K),
T1 is the inlet gas temperature in K,
k the heat capacity ratio,
p1 the inlet pressure in kPa, and p2 the discharge
pressure in kPa.
• The power required for the compression is
equal to the product of the adiabatic head and
the mass flow rate of gas handled.
• Thus, the adiabatic power for single-stage
compression is given by

where Pad is the adiabatic power in kW, m the mass flow rate in kg/s, and
mv,1 the volumetric gas flow rate at the compressor inlet in m3/h.
 The adiabatic discharge temperature
is obtained from:

• The actual process of compression is

polytropic, as given by the equation of state
pvn = constant.
• The expressions defining single-stage
polytropic head and polytropic power of
compression are similar to those developed
for adiabatic head and compression power

Where Zc =average compressibility factor

 Compression efficiencies
• The adiabatic efficiency can be represented in
terms of the total pressure change as

• the polytropic efficiency,