The capacity of plants for the production of low-density polyethylene is increasing worldwide and is continuing to challenge designers to provide the larger compression machinery required. The expected level of reliability and availability is very high, and the cylinders and frames of these reciprocating compressors are specially designed to withstand this heavy-duty service. All design aspects have to be properly considered, including the torsional analysis that represents a very critical element. This article considers a train with 2 compressors, each configured with 10 cylinders, with an electric motor drive between them. One machine is directly coupled to the motor while the other has a flexible coupling. This represents the largest reciprocating compressor train in the world, with a total motor power of 33 MW.
Hole-pattern or honeycomb seals have been commonly used for many years in the Oil & Gas industry as damper seals for turbomachinery. The main motivation has been to introduce additional damping to improve the shaft rotordynamic stability operating under high-pressure conditions. Experience has shown that the dynamic and even static characteristics of those seals are very sensitive to the operating clearance profile as well as the installation tolerances. Rotordynamic stability is related not only to the seal effective damping but to the effective stiffness as well. In fact, for this kind of seal, the effective stiffness can be high enough to alter the rotor system's natural frequency. The seal stiffness is strictly related to the tapering contour: if the clearance profile changes from divergent to convergent, the effective stiffness may change from a strong negative to a strong positive magnitude, thus avoiding the rotor natural frequency drop as it is detrimental for the stability. Unfortunately, the effective damping is reduced at the same time but this effect can be mitigated using proper devices to keep the preswirl low or even negative (e.g., swirl brakes and shunt holes). This paper presents the results from an extended test campaign performed in a high-speed rotor test rig equipped with active magnetic bearings (AMBs) working under high pressure (14 krpm, 200 bar gas inlet pressure), with the aim to validate the rotordynamic characteristics of a negative preswirl, convergent honeycomb seal and demonstrate its ability to effectively act as a gas bearing as well as a seal. The test plan included variations of inlet pressure, differential pressure (given the same inlet pressure), as well as rotational speed in order to fully validate the seal behavior. This kind of test was performed in a “dynamic mode” that is to say exciting the spinning test rotor through a pair of AMBs along linear orbits. Additionally, the impact of the seal to rotor static eccentricity and the seal to rotor angular misalignment were both experimentally investigated and compared to relevant computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. This kind of test was performed in a “static mode,” that is to say imposing through the AMBs the required eccentricity/angular misalignment and then measuring the forces needed to keep the rotor in the original position. Dynamic mode test was also performed in order to check the impact of the seal static eccentricity on its dynamic behavior. Finally, the test results were compared with predictions from a state of the art bulk-flow code in order to check the predictability level for future design applications.
Hole-pattern or honeycomb seals have been commonly used for many years in the Oil & Gas industry as damper seals for turbomachinery. The main motivation has been to introduce additional damping to improve the shaft rotordynamic stability operating under high pressure conditions. Experience has shown that the dynamic and even static characteristics of those seals are very sensitive to the operating clearance profile as well as the installation tolerances. Rotordynamic stability is related not only to the seal effective damping but to the effective stiffness as well. In fact, for this kind of seal, the effective stiffness can be high enough to alter the rotor system’s natural frequency. The seal stiffness is strictly related to the tapering contour: if the clearance profile changes from divergent to convergent, the effective stiffness may change from a strong negative to a strong positive magnitude, thus avoiding the rotor natural frequency drop as it is detrimental for the stability. Unfortunately the effective damping is reduced at the same time but this can be improved using proper devices to keep the pre-swirl low or even negative (e.g. swirl brakes, shunt holes). This paper presents the results from an extended test campaign performed in a high-speed rotor test rig equipped with active magnetic bearings working under high pressure (14krpm, 200bar gas inlet pressure), with the aim to validate the rotordynamic characteristics of a negative pre-swirl, convergent honeycomb seal and demonstrate its ability to effectively act as a gas bearing as well as a seal. The test plan included variations of inlet pressure, differential pressure (given the same inlet pressure) as well as rotational speed in order to fully validate the seal behaviour. This kind of test was performed in a “dynamic mode”, exciting the spinning test rotor through a pair of AMBs along linear orbits. Additionally the impact of the seal to rotor static eccentricity and the seal to rotor angular misalignment were both experimentally investigated and compared to relevant CFD simulations. This kind of test was performed in a “static mode”, imposing through the AMBs the required eccentricity / angular misalignment and then measuring the forces needed to keep the rotor in the original position. “Dynamic mode” test was also performed in order to check the impact of the seal static eccentricity on its dynamic behaviour. Finally the test results were compared with predictions from a state of the art bulk flow code in order to check the predictability level for future design applications.
The design and experimental activity presented in this paper is related to a novel hybrid seal which is intended to work as a balance piston seal in an AMBs levitated high-pressure (about 300 bar delivery pressure) motor-compressor. The typical solution adopted for balance piston application is a damper seal (e.g. honeycomb seal), as the rotordynamic stability is a primary focus. However, due to interactions between the AMB controller and seal high stiffness level, the aforementioned selection is not so straightforward. After a review of the state of the art it was found that a combination of some conventional geometries (e.g. labyrinth and honeycomb) can be adopted to achieve the desired target. The design was done using a novel tool combining the validated bulk flow codes for each geometry. Moreover, a CFD analysis, based on some literature references, was carried out as a final verification of the design. The experimental activity was then performed at the Authors’ internal seal test rig. As in typical rotordynamic seal testing activity, the operating parameters leveraged to explore performance sensitivity are rotational speed, inlet pressure, pressure ratio and inlet swirl level. The outcome was satisfactory both in terms of leakage and rotordynamic coefficients.
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