Studies Related to the Performance Improvement of Screw Compressor

Abstract

Even though compressed air is an important industrial utility along with land, water and electricity, the compression process in industries is highly inefficient and almost 17% of the total power consumed by industries is utilized for the compression process. As a result, it is necessary to determine the performance of a screw compressor and continuous attempts should be made to enhance the performance of a screw compressor. In order to improve the performance of a screw compressor, it is necessary to analyze the factors that affect the performance of a screw compressor. One of the factors affecting the performance of screw compressors is the leakages within the system. The present work aims to determine the leakage occurring in the screw compressor airend which is an important factor that affects the performance of a screw compressor. A computer program is developed that determines the leakages that takes place within the airend of a screw compressor and also computes the adiabatic efficiency and isothermal efficiency for a screw compressor considered for the case study. It also determines the changes in pressure, temperature and volume with respect to the rotor length and the cycle time and the variation in the temperature relative to the pressure and volume. The changes in the values of different types of leakages at various rotation angle of the male rotor are determined.