EXPERIMENT NO.

8
AIM: TO STUDY THE CONTRUCTIONAL DETAIL OF
CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR

Centrifugal Compressor is a machine in which a particular gas or vapor is compressed

by a radial acceleration by an impeller with the help of a surrounding case. It can then
be arranged multistage for greater proportions of compression.

PRINCIPLE OF CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR

When the air passes through the rotating impeller it experiences force or work which
is performed by centrifugal forces. The work input takes place as an increase in
pressure and velocity or speed of the air flow through the impeller. The air flow
looses it’s velocity after entering in the diffuser section. The diffuser is actually a
fixed or static component that escorts the air flow when it leaves the impeller. This
loss in velocity eventually results in an additional increase of pressure. The impeller
and the diffuser contributes about 65% and 35% of the total pressure developed or
produced in the compressor.

CONSTRUCTION:
A centrifugal compressor generally consists of four components named inlet,
impeller, diffusor and collector.

Figure1. Parts of Centrifugal Compressor

1. CASING AND INLET
The above mentioned components are usually protected or guarded by a casing or
housing. A case house consists of number of bearings in order to provide radial and
axial support of the rotor. The case also contains nozzles along with inlets and
discharge flow connections in order to introduce and extract flow from the
compressor. A case is generally built of cast iron or steel.

2. IMPELLER
The impellers are assembled or mounted on a steel shaft and this assembly is known
as compressor rotor (mostly in multi stage compressors). The rotor provides velocity
to the gas with blades that are attached to a rotating disc. These blades can be
forward-leaning, radial or backward-leaning depending upon the desired output. Most
of the multistage compressors use backward-leaning blades as they provide the widest
range of efficiency.

3. DIFFUSER
The impeller extracts the gas with great velocity into a diffuser passage. The diffuser
usually compromise two walls which form a radial channel. Because of these
arrangements the velocity of the gas decreases and dynamic pressure is converted into
static pressure. The diffuser passages are small space between adjacent diaphragms
which generally turns the gas flow 180° in order to direct it towards the next impeller.

4. COLLECTOR
Following the last stage impeller the gas must be collected and delivered to the
discharge flange. The component used to collect the gas discharged through the
diffuser is called as collector. It may also be termed as volute or scroll. The collector
may also contain valves and other instrumentation in order to control the compressor.

TYPES OF CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR

There are two types of centrifugal compressor:
1. Single stage centrifugal compressor
2. Multi stage centrifugal compressor
Both of these compressor work on the same principle but they do have some drastic
difference in their construction and working.
1. SINGLE STAGE COMPRESSOR
Single stage compressors consist of only a single impeller and it is use for moving the
air or other gases up to 3 to 1 compression ratio for either pressure or vacuum
duty. These types of compressors are considered to have a beam design or an
overhung impeller arrangement. In this type of arrangement the impeller is at the non-
driving end of the shaft. One major advantage of it over the multistage compressor is
that it provides high efficiency and the delivered gas is totally oil and surge free.

2. MULTISTAGE COMPRESSOR
Multistage compressors consist of 1-10 impellers and it can be arranged in a variety of
flow path configurations. Throughout each and every stage the temperature and the
compression ratio are assumed to be constant. Multistage compressor can be arranged
in straight-through, compound, and double flow configurations. Multistage
compressors are also considered to have beam-type design but the impellers are
located between the radial bearings.

APPLICATIONS OF CENTRIFUGAL COMPRESSOR

1. Compressed Gas or Air: Centrifugal compressor is one of the most simple and
efficient way to obtain or produce compressed air. They are best suited when the
demand of air or gas is constant and excessive.
2. Food Industry: Food processing industry depends highly on this type of
compressor as it can provide oil free compressed air which are necessary for
some sensitive petitions.
3. Gas Turbines: Gas turbines use either or both axial and centrifugal compressor
to provide the necessary compression.
4. Oil Refiners, Petrochemical and Chemical Plants: The centrifugal compressors
used for the above purposes generally have a horizontally split casing and most of
them are multistage compressors. These types of compressors are generally
operated by over-sized steam engines and gas turbines.
5. Refrigeration and Air Control: Centrifugal Compressors support a wide variety
of refrigerants and thermodynamics and are also able to supply compression in
water chiller cycles due to which it has a high demand for usage in refrigerators
and air conditioners.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
Advantages
1. When compared to other compressors, it is relatively agile and easy to
manufacturer.
2. As this compressor does not require any special foundation it is highly energy
efficient and reliable.
3. They consist of a small number of rubbing parts and are absolutely oil free in
nature.
4. It generates a higher pressure ratio per stage than the axial flow compressor.

Disadvantages
1. They produce a limited amount of pressure and are not suitable for very high
compression.
2. As they work at relatively high speed an enlightened or worldly mounting is
required.
3. They are very sensitive towards problems such as stalling and choking.