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Rainer Kurz
Solar Turbines Incorporated,
9330 Sky Park Court,
San Diego, CA 92123
e-mail: kurz_rainer_x@solarturbines.com
Augusto Garcia-Hernandez
e-mail: augusto.garciahernandez@swri.org
Klaus Brun
e-mail: kbrun@swri.org
Mechanical Engineering Division,
Southwest Research Institute,
P.O. Drawer 28510,
San Antonio, TX 78228-0510
Introduction
line. The surge line to the left is the stability limit for the current
installation based on tests. Only at flows lower than the flow established by this surge line, a surge event i.e., reversal of flow
was encountered. For the tested installation, due to the relatively
low pressure, aerodynamic forces on the rotor, for example, due to
rotating stall events, would be of no consequence to the life of the
machine 1. A detailed description of the test setup used to acquire the transient data is found in Refs. 1,2.
Theoretical Considerations
dN
dt
dN
dt
dN
kN2
=
dt J22
1
1
k
t
J22 Nt=0
dN
k
2 =
N
J22
dt + c Nt
Hs
sHs,N
The difficulty lies in the fact that compressor maps are generated with the fundamental assumption that the machine operates
under steady-state conditions 3,4.
Obviously, the conditions during the fast transients are not
steady-state. The data gathered in the tests conducted by Moore et
al. 1,2 allow one to test the hypothesis that steady-state data are
suitable for use in simulations of fast transients.
These are the following systematic issues that still need to be
overcome.
The isentropic head is evaluated first since it is not a function of the lagging discharge temperature and can be calculated directly from the suction temperature and suction and
discharge pressure measured head. Using the compressor map, it can be determined whether this head coincides
with the head determined from the compressor map for the
measured flow and speed calculated head.
The compressor absorbed power that is the sum of gas
power and mechanical power loss can be determined from
the measured rate of speed change and the known system
inertia Eq. 8. If a simple relationship between mechanical losses and speed can be postulated, the gas power is then
known and allows the calculation of the isentropic head and
isentropic efficiency measured head and efficiency. This,
in turn, can again be compared with values derived from the
compressor map for the given flow and speed calculated
head and efficiency.
The results will show a deviation between measured and calculated values and thus give an indication of the error generated by
the use of steady-state maps for transient compressor operation.
One of the possible causes for the deviation will undoubtedly
be due to the heat transfer between the compressor and the gas.
This is a known cause for errors in performance tests, where unsteady operating conditions will lead to erroneous results 5, or
for gas turbine transient operating conditions 4,68.
High speed transient data were previously obtained for a compressor during emergency shutdown and used to validate commercial transient surge prediction tools 2. This study will use these
data to evaluate the common practice of utilizing steady-state
compressor map data for transient performance predictions. This
is especially important for determining the necessary surge margin
during an emergency shutdown and for designing antisurge systems.
Method
In order to compare the transient measured compressor performance against the steady-state map obtained from the manufacturer, the compressor map was broken down into a series of curve
fits. Curve fit coefficients were obtained from each speed line with
flow as the input variable and head as the output. A final fit function was made between all the speed line fit coefficients with
compressor speed and flow as the input variables. This allowed a
steady-state head value to be obtained from the map for a given
compressor speed and flow. Head and flow were then plotted usTransactions of the ASME
T1
C
P2
bar
T2
C
Q
m3 / s
N
rpm
12.86
22.39
14.43
34.22
0.759
19,799
ing both the measured data, and the map predicted head versus
measured flow. This comparison will show if using a steady-state
map is valid for transient calculations especially calculations to
simulate an emergency shutdown of a compressor station.
The steady-state conditions before shutdown for the case analyzed are summarized here Table 1.
Of particular importance in ensuring accurate and meaningful
results from this study was the need to avoid using discharge
temperature data in the calculations. Figure 2 shows compressor
inlet and discharge temperatures during the shutdown event initiated at about 8.6 s with recycle valve position indicated. The
compressor had spun down from 19,800 rpm at t = 8.6 s to 6150
rpm at t = 15 s yet the temperatures had not changed as would be
expected especially for the discharge with such a drop in speed
and pressure ratio. This would suggest that the thermal mass of
the thermowells and thermocouples used in the experiment was
too large to capture meaningful transient data. Isentropic efficiency or gas power could not be calculated using conventional
isentropic calculations due to the need for highly accurate temperature rise data. Also, due to the low pressure ratio used during
the test 1.12, temperature rise is small, resulting in a high expected degree of error in the temperature measurements from thermocouples.
Power input to the gas was calculated using the change in speed
of the compressor train. Equation 5 shows how the decay of the
gas absorbed power with speed is somewhat counteracted by the
presence of residual power in the driving gas turbine, while the
speed decay is accelerated by losses in the bearings.
Pgas Pres + Pmech = JN
dN
dt
N
No
BeCBt
,
1 AeCBt
A=
Po
,
N 3J
B=
Pomo
,
N 2J
C = ln
N
B + AN
Equation 7 was then used to calibrate mechanical loss estimates against measured speed decay. mo was altered until speed
decay calculated using Eq. 7 matched the measured speed decay,
as shown in Fig. 4. Note how the residual gas power decreases the
speed decay slope for the first 0.4 s. Equation 7 is not valid for
this region, therefore the analysis started at t = 9.1 s.
Fig. 2 Suction and discharge temperature variation through ESD with recycle valve position
indicated
Fig. 3 Speed decay and rate change of speed decay after shutdown showing influence of residual driver power
dN
Pmech
dt
U2
tM t3
Fig. 4 Measured versus calculated speed decay used to estimate mechanical losses
Fig. 5 Extrapolation of measured shaft power into the region where residual driver power was not zero, allowing calculation of residual driver
power
Results
Figure 6 graphically shows the difference between the steadystate map prediction and the measured path taken during emergency shutdown. Marked on the measured line are speed points
Fig. 7 Relative error in head between map prediction and measured data during shutdown
Fig. 9 Comparison of map predicted power and measured power. Correction for heat transfer during shutdown is included.
Fig. 10 Thermal and mechanical losses expressed in power and relative to the shaft power delivered
the power absorbed during these tests, heat transfer effects are
significant despite the relatively small temperature rise over the
compressor. For applications with significant pressure ratios, this
effect will also be more pronounced and cannot be ignored. Figure
10 shows how the heat loss is fairly small at steady-state about
3% but increases as a percentage of the shaft power as flow speed
decreases.
Although the heat transfer coefficient will decrease with a
lower flow velocity, residence time in the compressor is treated as
dominant in Eq. 9. This assumption seems to be justified as the
measured gas power collapses onto the predicted gas power line
using this correlation shown in Fig. 9. As stated above, the measured gas power line reflects diabatic conditions, having taken
heat transfer into account via actual speed and pressure measurements. The predicted line assumes an adiabatic condition. Collapsing the two lines requires removal of the heat input to the gas
during rapid transient, which is accomplished by estimating the
heat transfer using Eq. 9. Note that the error between the corrected measured and predicted power during the 0.5 s after shutdown is most likely due to the fact that the nondimensional heat
transfer relationships used do not take into account energy generation such as the residual gas turbine power. The use of an
empirical constant is not valid for such a case as it can be
calibrated with or without generation, not both. After the compressor shifts from being driven by the residual gas turbine power to
driving, the correction performs well. In order to prove the viability of the relationships used, other shutdown cases must be analyzed using the same value for . If good agreement is achieved at
different suction pressures and surge margins, it can be said that
the approach to heat transfer taken in this study is valid for use as
a diabatic correction during fast transients.
Conclusion
Nomenclature
T
J
N
k
Q
H
mo
T
Pgas
Pres
Pmech
Po
No
U
t
Mt
torque
polar moment of inertia
shaft speed
power-speed proportionality factor
density
flow
head
mechanical loss coefficient at reference
temperature
gas power
residual gas turbine driver power
mechanical power loss
inertial power at reference
shaft speed at reference
impeller tip speed
impeller tip flow coefficient
impeller tip Mach number
heat transfer coefficient
heat transfer
References
1 Moore, J. J., Kurz, R., Garcia-Hernandez, A., and Brun, K., 2009, Experimental Evaluation of a Compressor Station During Emergency Shutdowns,
ASME Paper No. GT2009-59064.
2 Moore, J. J., Garcia-Hernandez, A., Blieske, M., Kurz, R., and Brun, K., 2009,
Transient Surge Measurements of a Centrifugal Compressor During Emergency Shutdowns, Proceedings of the 38th Turbomachinery Symposium,
Houston, TX.
3 Morini, M., Pinelli, M., and Venturini, M., 2009, Analysis of Biogas Compression System Dynamics, Appl. Energy, 86, pp. 24662475.
4 Morini, M., Pinelli, M., and Venturini, M., 2007, Development of a OneDimensional Modular Dynamic Model for the Simulation of Surge in Compression Systems, ASME J. Turbomach., 129, pp. 437447.
5 Kurz, R., and Brun, K., 2005, Site Performance Evaluation for Gas Turbine
and Electric Motor Driven Compressors, Proceedings of the 34th Turbomachinery Symposium, Houston, TX.
6 Berns, W., and Fottner, L., 1991, Experimental Analysis of the Dynamic
Performance of Turbojet Engines, ISABE Paper No. 91-7027.
7 Schmidt, K. J., 1991, The Effects of the Characteristics of Gas Turbine Components During Transition, ISABE Paper No. 91-7009.
8 Morini, M., Cataldi, G., Pinelli, M., and Venturini, M., 2007, A Model for the
Simulation of Large-Size Single-Shaft Gas Turbine Start-Up Based on Operating Data Fitting, Proceedings of the ASME Turbo Expo 2007.
9 Casey, M. V., and Fesich, T. M., 2009, On the Efficiency of Compressors
With Diabatic Flows, ASME Paper No. GT2009-59015.