PREDICTION OF CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSORS PERFORMANCES AND APPLICATIONS FOR TEST, SURGE PROTECTION AND MACHINERY DIAGNOSTIC

1 INTRODUCTION 2 METHOD In order to proceed to performances evaluation comparison

weve applied this method in the following steps:
One of the main difficulties for the analysis of centrifugal com- The purpose of this para-
pressors operative performances comes from the fact that usu- graph is to provide a Step 1. Expected performances related to design inlet
ally expected performances are described in terms of graphs simple explanation of the conditions have been adjusted to field suction condi-
of discharge pressures, discharge temperatures, polytrophic calculation process used tions.
heads, efficiencies and absorbed power, related to the design to evaluate the compres- Step 2. Field performances are compared to adjusted
inlet gas conditions, i.e. gas mix composition, inlet pressure sor performances. expected performances.
and temperature. However compressor actual performances
As starting point we can
are strictly related to actual field inlet gas condition that of- At this point its possible to proceed to the comparison of the
ten are different from design ones. The comparison of field consider that, for a cen- expected performances to the field performances being both
measurements to expected values then becomes complicated trifugal compressor, per- referenced to the same inlet conditions.
because the expected performances need to be adjusted to the formances are strictly
actual suction field conditions. linked to the inlet gas It is possible to compare performances Figure 4
conditions. This consid- obtained under same inlet conditions

The main purpose of this paper, is to present a method and eration is valid both to Figure 1
tools for centrifugal compressor field performances evaluation the design performances as for the field/actual performances.
and comparison to design expected performances. Further-
more in this paper a case study will be presented, where the It is the important to note also that performances referenced
method has been applied. to different inlet conditions cannot be in general compared. In
order to compare performances obtained under different inlet
The execution of this evaluation is quite complex and requires conditions it is necessary to adjust and align performances to
the availability of calculation algorithms able to predict both the same reference inlet conditions.
machine behavior and thermodynamic gas properties under
It is not possible to
different operative conditions. compare performances obtained Figure 2
under different inlet conditions

The current practice today is based on simplified theories. Of-

ten also these simplified theories are completely neglected at
plant/machine level causing a lack of analytical support ca-
pability for evaluation of machine health and performances
and a consequent lack of support for maintenance decision
making. Moreover these simplified theories become progres-
sively more approximate, especially when approaching the
high pressures range where introduced errors do not allow
to provide enough accurate predictions for more severe ap-
plications. In these cases more rigorous calculations and ad-
equate computational tools are necessary to implement the
most modern thermodynamic theories and machine models
without limiting approximations.
In order to execute this advanced machines performances the special trick is then remember that one of the two per-
analysis, Industrial Plants Consultants S.R.L. research lab has formances need to be manipulated and adjusted to the inlet
developed a dedicated software tool based on most recent gas conditions of the second one. In brief inlet conditions need to
theories and centrifugal machine models.
Cmap is a software tool for PC, Windows based, designed to
perform easily and quickly centrifugal compressors perfor-
mance evaluations. Cmap has been built in order to give to
the centrifugal compressor analyst or industry user, a powerful
and easy tool to predict the machine performances under dif-
ferent operative conditions. Cmap allows also some addition-
al tasks useful to compare centrifugal compressor expected/
design performances with field data measured ones. Analysts
and engineers that use Cmap will have all quantitative infor-
mation about machine status necessary to define diagnostic
strategies and maintenance activities.
When attempting to evaluate performances by comparison
between field measured parameters and expected parameters,
be homogeneous. (see below sketch for concept flow)
Figure 3
3 SOFTWARE
This paragraph describes how to apply the software tool. In
order to use Cmap, the starting point is the availability of a
centrifugal compressor performance curve, the relevant gas
mix composition and thermodynamic conditions (pressure
and temperature). Having this inputs data available, the soft-
ware will perform all complex calculation in fully automated
way and will produce the expected compressor performances
for inlet pressures, inlet temperatures and gas mix composi-
tions different for design / reference ones. The software is easy
and intuitive, and will provide also automatic storage of data
in a project archives for quick consultation and historic trends.
Cmap is structured to allow to analysts and engineers to build
their own machinery database and to maintain records of all
executed calculations. Let us consider the case of availability
of centrifugal compressor performances (pres-
sures and temperatures - see Figure 5, next
page).
The input process offers many alternative
ways to set up compressor reference data. The
most common way is to enter performances
curves expressed in terms of delivery pressure
vs inlet flow rate, and delivery temperature vs
inlet flow rate. As alternative, when available,
it is possible to input directly non dimensional
data.

p. 6 Gas Machinery Journal

Prediction of Centrifugal Compressors Performances and Applications for Test,
Surge Protection and Machinery Diagnostic, contd
Data input process can be also executed in digital way picking data graphically directly
on pdf or jpeg files. In order to complete the data input process it will be necessary to
input the considered gas mix composition and the considered pressure and temperature.
Figure 8
Once the project set up is finished, the software has all necessary data to perform calcula-
tions. The following step is then to launch the calculation task. To execute this task its
needed only few seconds to input the new gas mix, and launch the calculation for new
inlet pressures an temperatures. When requested the run task will execute also calcula-
tions for polytrophic Head and Efficiency.

Once calculations completed, the software will respond displaying the new compressor
performances map.

After this first calculation step it is possible to run a performances analysis tool that allows
to compare field measured data with expected data. This task is useful to the analyst in
order to obtain a quantitative evaluation of the compressor running status. Performance
analysis gives the possibility to provide precious information useful for predictive diag-
nostic evaluation.

Figure 9
Figure 5

Figure 10
Figure 6

Figure 11

Figure 7
Prediction of Centrifugal Compressors Performances and Applications for Test, Surge Protection and Machinery Diagnostic, contd
4 CASE STUDY: Performances prediction check Consequently the protection of these algorithms is par-
by comparison to manufacturer maps tial and limited. When the compressor is requested to
operate outside the design conditions, the protection ac-
In this paragraph a real case will be presented. The com- tion may become inefficient and potentially can cause
pressor under study was running under off design inlet the damaging of the compressor.
conditions, and an analysis with the presented method al-
A technical difficulty in achieving effective and com-
lowed to obtain a performances evaluation and comparison
plete protection of compressor from surge phenomenon
to design values. In this case study centrifugal compressor is caused by the fact that in reality, also surge limits are
performances map in two different inlet conditions of pres- dependent on the gas mixture and on the thermodynam-
sure and temperature were available, as shown in Table 1. ic suction conditions (temperature and pressure).

The proposed method for prediction of centrifugal per-

formances can be profitably used to predict centrifugal
Figure 12 compressor overall performances in every inlet condi-
tions and then to detect surge points in every operative
conditions.

The application of proposed methods allows also a new

kind of diagnostic capabilities.

Starting from the curves of the D1 condition, the expected In fact, the software is able to store automatically data
performance curves in the D2 have been calculated using and to provide a real time indication of the compressor
the software Cmap. The obtained curves, D2calc, have efficiency and comparison with expected ones. This is a
been than compared to the D2 curves available as input. powerful feature that permits to have continuous indica-
tion about how much the machine behavior is aligned
Figure 12 compares the D2calc (x points), obtained with the with design expectations. These evaluation can be than
software Cmap, versus D2 (continuous line) performances used to have historian trends and to build pictures of the
curves. machine status along the operation period. Collected
data will be useful to support decision making on pre-
Figure 13
In Figures 13-15, it can be noted how the curves almost dictive maintenance activities plans an operations
overlap: the maximum error calculated is less than 0.2 %
(polytropic work at maximum speed). Measured errors have 5 CONCLUSIONS
been considered tolerable for the purpose of the evaluation Methods proposed and described in this paper can al-
of compressor field performance. low to:
- predict the performances of a centrifugal compres-
This case study confirms the capability of the proposed sor under varying thermodynamic conditions of the
method to predict compressor performances aligned with inlet gas. The prediction of compressor performances
design ones. is accurate even at high pressures, where the ideal gas
theory commonly used introduces considerable errors.
An important application of these proposed methods is on - analyze the performance of the compressor during
surge protection systems and on diagnostic purposes operation and compare them with those expected pro-
vided by the manufacturer.
The actual centrifugal compressors protection systems are - implement advanced protection from surge, over-
based on simplified algorithms that use basically the inlet coming limits of the current technology.
flow, suction and discharge pressures and temperatures. Figure 14 - have useful indications on the health of the compres-
These actual algorithms, are based on a basic surge locus sor (diagnostics) based on the capability to analyze
equation obtained under simplified hypothesis such as the the performances and efficiency of the machine in a
ideal gas law, validity of hydraulic affinity laws, reference simple and immediate way
gas mix and inlet conditions. These algorithms are con- - support decisions and planning of predictive mainte-
sequently completely dependent on the suction thermo- nance and activities
dynamic parameters (pressure, temperature and gas mix - the methods and software tools have been validated
composition): the protection action is than rigidly linked to versus many compressor technical data, and versus all
design suction parameters and remains valid only for the the available scientific papers on thermodynamic gas
design specified gas mix. Therefore these systems provide theories developed in the hydrocarbons research field.
a limited surge protection valid in a small operative range
around the design conditions. The compressor protection 6 AUTHORS
is not correctly active when inlet conditions move to off - Antonio Di Febo IPC Senior consultant
design values, especially when approaching the high pres- - Massimiliano Di Febo IPC Operation manager
sures range where introduced errors do not allow to provide - Paganini Pasquale IPC Technical manager
enough accurate predictions for more severe applications - Antonio Pedone IPC Eng consultant
- Gaetano Esposito IPC Eng consultant
Figure 15
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