Investigate the Effect of Speed on Two Stage Air Compressor Performance

Abstract

Compressor reciprocating speed is of paramount importance and must be carefully looked at by manufactures, and end users. In compressor designing, speed should be carefully examined because it has a big impact on efficiency of the machine and overall performance. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of speed on two stage air compressors. In this investigation, the experiment was conducted, at 603, 1002, and 1617 (rpm) on the two-stage reciprocating compressor. The results revealed that the lowest speed had the highest isothermal efficiency of 86.7%, with the middle speed having 82.93% and the highest speed having 79.88%. This showed that at high speed the machine started experiencing same negative effects that ends up reducing efficiency.