University of Birmingham

Mechanical Engineering
Fluid flow, Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer
Course Work

T2: Two Stages Air Compressor

Submitted by: Stelio Michael Machado Antonas (Student number: 1315848)

Group 2
Date of submission: 08/04/2014
Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the effect of the intercooling process on the
performance of a two stage reciprocating air compressor. The usage of an intercooler is to decrease the
amount of work done by the machine. The GT103 two-stage air compressor test set was used in this
experiment. In the beginning of the experiment, the machine was turned on and driven by electrical
motor. Then, by manipulating the air receiver pressure, the dynamometer load, the outlet and inlet
temperature were recorded as same as the voltage and current. From the results obtained, the values of
air flow rate, air indicated power, efficiencies and indexes of compression were calculated. Three graphs
representing the relationship between the performance of the compressor and the delivery pressure,
represented by the air flow rate, power and the efficiencies were plotted. From the graphs it can be
noticed that the efficiency of the machine, the electrical input power and the air indicated power
increases as the delivery pressure increases whereas the free air delivery decreases. The errors will be
discussed later.

1. Introduction

A range of industries, such manufacture of chemicals and fertilizers, uses compressors to supply power
to pneumatic tools like ratchet wrenches spray guns and air mailers, they can also be found in gas
stations and they can be used to supply power to a variety of tools for a long period of time, those are
called two-stage air compressor. This report will examine the main advantages of a two-stage
intercooled compression process as compared with a single stage process. The report is divided into
four main sections. It will first explain the materials used during the experiment and how the experiment
was conducted. It will then show some calculations that were done to achieve the results. It will then
go on to show the results of the experiment in tables and chats and some discussion of the result. And
finally some conclusion will be provided as to explain the errors and the advantages of the two stage
air compressor

2. Material and methods

The machine that was used is a GT103 two-stage compressor test set. The machine consist of two
industrial compressors, one with a low pressure cylinder and other with a high pressure cylinder, an
intercooler between the two stages and an air receiver. The piston of each cylinder is driven by a prime
mover electrical motor, and linked with a dynamometer. The machine also has two analogue meter for
each compressor instrument group that measure the voltage and the current applied to the dynamometer,
which all can be seen in figure 2 in the lab sheet.

In the beginning of the experiment, air is drawn into the compressor through a filter and compressed in
the first stage with a low pressure cylinder that reduce the volume and increase the temperature of the
air. It then passes to through an intercooler to reduce the temperature in a constant pressure process by
a counter current water flow heat exchanger. The air then is compressed in the second stage with a high
pressure cylinder before the air goes to the receiver

2.1. Calculation

Before any calculations could be done, all readings of pressure were converted from gauge to absolute
pressure. Calculation for the 10 bar receiver pressure have been made. For the free air delivery, it was
first calculated the mass flow rate 𝑚̇𝑎 by substituting the measured value of ∆𝑝, the values of 𝐶𝑑 , 𝐸, 𝐴,
given in table 1, see appendix A, and the calculated value of 𝜌 into equation (1), see appendix B, giving
0.00437 kg/s. It was then substituted the calculated value of 𝑚̇𝑎 , the given value of 𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑟 , T and P into
equation (2), see appendix B that gave 0.0035635 𝑚3 /𝑠 of volumetric flow rate. It was next calculated
the compressor efficiency by substituting the calculated value of the Air indicated power of the system
and the Electrical input power to the system into equation (3), see appendix B, which gave 90.84% of
efficiency. It was then calculated the index of compression for stage 1, 2 and overall by substituting the
measured values of 𝑇1, 𝑇2 , 𝑃1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑃2 into equation 4 that gave 1.43 for the first stage, 1.308 for the
second stage and 1.222 for overall. Next was calculated the air indicated power for each stage by
substituting the calculated value of 𝑚̇𝑎 , n and 𝑃𝑅 for each stage, the given value of 𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑟 and T into
equation (5), see appendix B, which gave 799.3 W for the first stage and 944.8 for the second stage.

3. Results

The indexes of compression of stage one, two and overall are different and one smaller than another
due to differences of pressure and temperature of stage 1 and 2, as shown in table 1, see appendix A.
Table 2, see appendix A, shows the data collected during the experiment and the calculated value of the
Free Air Delivery and the calculated value of the mass flow rate as well. It can be noticed that as the
delivery pressure decrease the Free Air Deliver experience a small increasing as well as the mass flow
rate.
It can be noticed a significant improvement of the volumetric efficiency when the pressure of the gas is
increased by passing the air through the intercooler after the first compression (low pressure cylinder)
as shown in table 3.

Simultaneous readings were taken at the compressor when pressures from 5 to 10 bar were obtained. It
can be noticed that as the Free Air Deliver experience decreasing when the delivery pressure increases
as shown in figure 1. The figure is easy to understand and quite straight forward since the volume flow
rate (Free Air Delivery) is inversely proportional to the pressure as shown in equation (2), so the bigger
the pressure the smaller the volume flow rate ( Free Air Delivery).

The electrical power input increases as the delivery pressure increases, since is required more power to
deliver a bigger pressure. The electrical power in stage 1 experience a small increase since the air passes
through a low pressure cylinder that does not use a huge amount of power. The electrical power in stage
2 experience a large increase, since the air passes through a high pressure cylinder that use a large
amount of power, as shown in figure 2.

It can also be noticed in figure 2 that the indicated power of the compressor increases as the delivery
pressure increases since the pressure ratio increases as the delivery pressure increases, and the indicated
power is directly proportional to the pressure ration as shown in equation (5), see appendix B.

There is an increasing in the efficiency of the machine with respect to pressure due to intercooler. There
is 90.84% of efficiency when the pressure in the receiver is 10 bar, which is very good since the machine
use almost the entire input power and since the efficiency is directly proportional to the air indicated
power of the system and inversely proportional to the electrical input power of the system as shown in
equation (3), see appendix B, the efficiency of the system is bigger when the difference between the air
indicated power of the system and the electrical input power of the system is small which means that
the machine uses a large amount of power and reject a small amount of power.
 FREE AIR DELIVERY VS DELIVERY PRESSURE
0.00366
Free Air Delivery (mᵌ/s)

0.00364
0.00362
0.0036
0.00358
0.00356
0.00354
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Delivery pressure (bar)

Figure 1: relation between free air delivery and delivery pressure.

Power vs Delivery pressure

Electrical power stage 1 Electrical power stage 2
Indicated power stage 1 Indicated power stage 2

1400
1200
1000
Power

800
600
400
200
0
0 2 4 Delivery6Pressure 8 10 12

Figure 2: relation between electrical input power and air indicated power of 2 stages with respect to
delivery pressure.

Overall efficiency vs Delivery pressure

100

80
Efficiency (%)

60

40

20

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Delivery pressure (bar)

Figure 3: Relation between the overall efficiency with respect to delivery pressure.
 p-v diagram
1.20E+01

1.00E+01

8.00E+00
Pressure

6.00E+00

4.00E+00

2.00E+00

0.00E+00
0.00E+00 5.00E-05 1.00E-04 1.50E-04 2.00E-04 2.50E-04
Volume

Figure 4: p-v diagram for a two-stage compression cycle with intercooling.

3.1. Discussion

From the results obtained, it is observed that the work required to the compressor is reduced by passing
the air through the intercooler which has a counter clock water flow which leads to low temperature
and volume which reduce the input power required by the compressor as shown in figure (4), were the
black line is a single stage air compressor with points shown in table 4, see appendix B, and the red is
for the two stage air compressor with the points shown in table 4, see appendix B.

4. Conclusion

From the intercooling processes carried out in two stage air compressor experiment, it can be concluded
that the work required to compress the air is less than the single stage compressor. So the power required
to drive the two stage air compressor is also less with respect to the single stage compressor. From all
the results of intercooling processes, it can be concluded that the use of the intercooler result in large
volumetric efficiency. The polytropic index of compression n of this machine is usually between 1.2
and 1.3, and the calculated value of the overall polytropic index of compression, n, is 1.222, which
means that the value obtain from the experiment is between these limits, we can conclude that the
experiment for this part was successfully carried out because, the value obtain was in the limits.

There could be possible error that took place during the experiment conducted. Since the pressure and
temperature through the rig have to be in stable conditions and requires a lot of time, so this may have
caused errors during taking the measurement. There might also have error due to the instrument used
to carried out the experiment, the machine used in this experiment maybe not functioning well, thus, it
affect the measurement. In order to overcome these error and to get the accurate value of the experiment,
things need to be put into consideration. Firstly, the person doing the experiment need to wait until the
machine reaches stable conditions, the observer must be 90ᵒ perpendicular to the reading of A and V
and before the experiment is conducted the machine used must be ensure to be functioning well.
Appendix A

Table 1: detail of the machine and indexes of compression.

Index of Index of Index of
compression compression compression
Cd d D E A stage 1 stage 2 overall
0.62 12.7 25.4 1.0328 0.000127 1.43 1.308 1.222

Table 2: data collected during the experiment and calculated values of free air delivery and mass flow
1st 2nd
stage stage
Recei air air Deliv delive
ver at air to from air at ery ry Mass
pressu inl interco interco deliv pressu press A A V V flow
re et oler oler ery re ure 1 2 1 2 FAD rate
1 12 12 0.0035 0.004
10 24 99 38 187 1.1 10 6 0 0 0 635 37
1 12 12 0.0035 0.004
9.5 24 99 37 185 1.1 10 6 0 0 0 635 37
11 12 0.0035 0.004
8 23 98.5 37 177 1.1 8 6 9 5 0 914 4
8. 11 12 0.0036 0.004
7 24 97.5 37 168 1 7 6 5 5 0 053 42
7. 11 12 0.0036 0.004
6 24 96.5 35 158 1 6 6 5 5 0 053 42
11 12 0.0036 0.004
5 25 95 34 150 1 5 6 7 5 0 467 47
rate.

Table 3: calculated values of power and efficiency.

Electr Electr Indic Indic

sha sha ical ical Electr ated ated Volum
ft ft input input ical powe powe etric
press spe spe power power power r r overall Efficie efficie
Recei ure ed ed stage stage overal stage stage indicate ncy ncy
ver drop 1 2 1 2 l 1 2 d power (%) (%)
10 127 750 750 720 1200 1920 799.3 944.8 1744.1 90.84 74.09
9.5 127 751 745 720 1200 1920 799.3 944.8 1744.1 90.84 73.99
8 129 752 747 690 1080 1770 683 815 1498 84.63 74.47
7 130 750 745 690 1020 1710 648.1 770.6 1418.7 82.97 74.96
6 130 752 747 690 900 1590 573.3 683.1 1256.4 79.02 74.76
5 130 751 747 690 840 1530 497.8 592.1 1089.9 71.24 75.71
Appendix B

𝑚̇𝑎 𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑇
Equation (1): 𝑉̇ = 𝑃

Equation (2): 𝑚̇𝑎 = 𝐶𝑑 𝐸𝐴√2∆𝑝𝜌

𝐴𝑖𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚

Equation (3): 𝜂 = 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚

𝑛−1
𝑇1 𝑃 𝑛
Equation (4): 𝑇2
= (𝑃1 )
2

(𝑛−1)
𝑛
Equation (5): 𝑊̇𝑖 = 𝑚̇𝑎 𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑟 𝑇0 (𝑛−1) {(𝑃𝑅 ) 𝑛 − 1}

Table 4: Points of the p-v diagram.

Volume (m³) Pressure (bar)

1.96E-04 9.87E-01
1.16E-04 2.09E+00
1.05E-04 2.09E+00
2.94E-05 1.10E+01
2.83E-06 1.10E+01
3.84E-06 2.09E+00
6.48E-06 9.87E-01
3.64E-05 1.10E+01