Introduction

• An air compressor takes in atmospheric air ,compresses it and

delivers the high-pressure air to storage vessel from which it may be
conveyed by the pipeline to whenever the supply of air is required.
• Since compressing requires some amount of work to be done upon
it which means compressor must be driven by a prime mover.
Uses of Compressed air
• Compressed air is used in the following fields
1. It is widely used in small engines mainly portable ones
2. Operating Tools in Factories
3. Operating Hammers and drills in road building
4. Excavating
5. Tunnelling and Mining
6. Starting Diesel Engines
7. Operating Brakes in buses, trucks and trains
• Large quantity at moderate pressure is used smelting operations
• Large quantity of air is used in air conditioning ,drying and
ventilations fields.
Classification of Air Compressor
• Air and gas compressor are mainly divided into two main types:
1. Reciprocating compressor
2. Rotary compressor
• According to number of process single-stage or multi-stage.
• If air is compressed in one side of piston only the it is single
acting and uses two sides of piston is double acting.
Reciprocating Compressor
• Initially the air from outside enters
through the inlet valve due to fact the
pressure in the cylinder is less than that of
intake air [high pressure to low
pressure].the air intake is limited by the
inlet valve lift which is the induction
stroke during which delivery valve is
closed.
• Now fresh charge of air is inside the
cylinder
Reciprocating Compressor
• Now the piston slowly moves upwards which is the upward stroke
which in turn increases the pressure inside cylinder slightly and
intake valve will be closed.
• Since both valves are closed the air inside the cylinder will be
increased and it reaches a limit the opens the delivery valve and
compressed air will released and the process will repeat.
• Only intermittent flow of compressed air is available through
compressor.
Reciprocating Compressor
Multistage Reciprocating Compressor
• Multistage compression is a
series arrangement of cylinder
in which compressed air from
the cylinder before, becomes
the intake air for the cylinder
which follows.
• It is common that machines
have two to three stage
compression. Complexity of the
machinery reduces the number
of stages.
Intercooler
If an intercooler is installed between cylinders, in which the
compressed air is cooled between cylinders, then the final
temperature is reduced. It helps in reducing input work requirement
for a given mass of air
Advantages of Multi stage compression
Multistage compressor is very efficient and is now-a-days almost
universally adopted except for compressors where the overall pressure
rise required is small. Main advantages is listed as follows:
1. The air can be cooled at pressure intermediate between
intake and delivery pressures.
2. The power required to drive a multistage compressor is less
than would be required by a single stage machine delivering
the same quantity of air at same delivery pressure.
3. Multistage machines have better mechanical balance
Advantages of Multi stage compression
4. The Pressure range may be kept within desirable limits. This
results in
• Reduced loses due to air leakage
• Improved lubrication
• Improved volumetric efficiency
5. The single cylinder must be robust enough to withstand higher
delivery pressure. However in low pressure regions of multi
cylinder engine lighter constructions can be adopted .
Rotary Compressor
• Rotary compressor are the machines which develop pressure and
have rotor as their element when compared with the piston sliding
mechanism of the reciprocating compressor.
• When large quantities of air at low pressure required low pressure
rotary compressors are used.
• The following are the types of rotary compressor
1. Displacement Compressor ( Roots Blower and sliding Vane )
2. Steady flow compressor (Centrifugal and Axial Flow)
Displacement Compressor
• Displacement compressor are those compressor in which air is
compressed by being trapped in the reduced space formed by two
sets of engaging surfaces.
Roots Blower
• The roots Blower is a positive displacement
compressor which operates by pumping a
fluid with a pair of lobes.
• Fluid is trapped in pockets surrounding the
lobes and carried from intake side to the
exhaust
• The most common application of the roots
blower types has been as the induction device
on a two stroke diesel engines
• It can also used in reverse to measure the
flow of gases.
 Sliding Vane
• The vane type air compressor is having a
fixed casing and a rotary rotor disc which has
slots for holding the sliding plates as shown
in the figure.
• As the rotor rotates, the disc also rotates
,thus allowing the sliding plates to slide as
the inner surface of the casing is eccentric.
• Thus the sliding plates moves away from the
centre, huge quantities of air will be trapped
in, thus as the plate converge ,the air gets
compressed and thus results in compressed
air.
Centrifugal Compressor
Construction
• In this compressor air enters axially and leaves radially
• It consists of an impeller, a casing and a diffuser.
• The impeller consists of a number of blades or vanes, is mounted
on the compressor shaft inside the casing.
• The impeller is surrounded by the casing.
Centrifugal Compressor
 Centrifugal Compressor
Working
• In this compressor air enters axially and leaves radially. When the impeller
rotates, air enters axially through the eye of the impeller with a low velocity.
• This air moves over the impeller vanes. Then, it flows radially outwards
from the impeller. The velocity and pressure increases in the impeller.
• The air then enters the diverging passage known as diffuser. In the diffuser,
kinetic energy is converted into pressure energy and the pressure of the air
further increases.
• Applications: Centrifugal compressors are used for low pressure units such as
for refrigeration, supercharging of internal combustion engines, etc.
 Axial Flow Compressor
• In this air compressor, air enters and leaves axially.
Working
• It consists of two sets of blades: Rotor blades and stator blades. The
blades are so arranged that the unit consists of adjacent rows of rotor
blades and stator blades as shown in Figure
• The stator blades are fixed to the casing. The rotor blades are fixed on
the rotating drum.
• The drum is rotated by a prime mover through a driving shaft. Single
stage compressor consists of a row of rotor blades followed by a row of
stator blades. Compression of air takes place in each pair of blades (one
rotor blade and one stator blade). Hence there are many stages of
compression in this type of compressor
Axial Flow Compressor
Axial Flow Compressor
• When the switch is switched on, the prime mover rotates the drum.
• Air enters through the compressor inlet and passes through the
rotor and stator blades. While passing through the blades, the air is
compressed between the blades.
• The air is also compressed between the casing and the blades. The
air flow passage area is gradually reduced from the inlet to the
outlet of the compressor.
• This increases the pressure of the air considerably. Finally, high
pressure air is delivered to the receiver.
Necessity of Safety Devices in
Compressor
• Safety devices on the air compressor will prevent damage to
component and ensure safety of operation.
• It helps to avoid abnormal and dangerous operational errors.
• A abnormal operation may lead to the breakdown of the
compressor and may also injure a person working on or around it.
Advantages of Rotary Compressor over
Reciprocating
• Rotary Compressor can handle a large volume of air whereas in
reciprocating compressor we only get low discharge
• Rotary Compressor have better mechanical balance due to less
vibrations.
• In rotary compression isentropic compression happens whereas is
reciprocating compressor isothermal compression therefore no heat
transfer loss in rotary compressor .
• Air delivered in rotary compressor is clean whereas in reciprocating
it will be contaminated with oil.
Indicator Diagram
• An indicator diagram is a graph between pressure and volume.
• There are two types of indicator diagram
1. Theoretical
2. Actual
• The ratio of are of the actual indicator diagram to the theoretical
one is called Diagram Factor
Power Calculations
• Indicated Power: The total power developed by the combustion
of fuel in the combustion chamber is called Indicated power it is
calculated by
npmi LANk×10
IP= kw
6

n= Number of Cylinder
pmi =Indicated Mean effective pressure, bar
A=Area of piston
N=speed
k=0.5 for four stroke and 1 for 2 stroke engine
L= Length of Stroke
Power Calculations
• Brake Power: The power developed by an engine at the output
shaft is called brake power
2πNT
BP= kw
60×1000

N=speed
T=Torque in Nm
• Friction Power : The difference between Indicated power and
Brake power is called Friction Power

FP=IP−BP
Efficiencies
• Mechanical Efficiency: The ratio of BP to IP is called mechanical
efficiency
BP
η= kw
IP
• Indicated Thermal Efficiency : It is the ratio of the heat
equivalent to one kW hour to the heat in the fuel per I.P hourmf is
the mass of the fuel
IP×3600
ηt =
mf ×C
• Specific Fuel Consumption: It is the mass of fuel consumed per
kW developed per hour .
mf mf
sfc= or
BP IP
Efficiencies
• Brake Thermal Efficiency: The is the ratio of heat equivalent to
one kW hour to the heat in fuel per BP Hour
BP×3600
ηt =
mf ×C
• Volumetric Efficiency : It is the ratio of Actual Volume of charge
admitted during suction stroke to the swept volume
Morse Test
• Morse test is adopted to find the indicated power of each cylinder
of a high speed engine. The test is carried our as follows
1. Consider the Four Cylinder engine. The brake power of all the engine is
calculated accurately by the help of brake dynamometer at a constant
speed and load.
2. Now one of the cylinder is cutoff so one so one of the cylinder does not
develop any power
3. This done by short circuiting spark plug in petrol engine cutting of fuel
supply in diesel engine.
4. The speed of the engine decreases and inorder to bring the speed back to
original speed , the load on the engine is reduced .
5. The brake power is now measure in this new condition and gives the
brake power of the remaining cycles .
Morse Test
I1, I2, I3 and I4 Indicated power of each individual cylinder
F1, F2, F3 and F4 Frictional power of each individual cylinder
Total Brake power
B= Total Indicated Power-Total Frictional Power
B= (I1 +I2 +I3 +I4 )-(F1+ F2+F3 +F4 )
Now cylinder No.1 is cut-off ,but frictional loses remains same
B1= (0 +I2 +I3 +I4 )-(F1+ F2+F3 +F4 )
Subtracting equations
B- B1= I1
Indicated power of cylinder 1, I1 = B- B1
Morse Test
Similarly
Indicated power of cylinder 2, I2 = B- B2
Indicated power of cylinder 3, I3 = B- B3
Indicated power of cylinder 4, I4 = B- B4

Total Indicated Power =

I= I1 +I2 +I3 +I4
Heat Balance Sheet
The complete record of heat supplied and heat rejected during a
certain time by an IC Engine is entered in a tabulate form known as
heat balance sheet .The following values are required to complete the
heat balance sheet of IC Engine
1. Heat Supplied by the fuel:
Heat supplied by fuel=mf ×C

C = calorific value of the fuel in KJ/kg

mf = Mass of fuel in kg/min
Heat Balance Sheet
2. Heat absorbed in IP Produced :

Heat absorbed in IP produced/min =100 pm LAn kW

pm =Mean effective pressure

Note: The equation is for single cylinder engine.

Heat Balance Sheet
3. Heat rejected to the cooling water:

Heat rejected to the cooling water =mw cw (t1 −t2 )

cw = Specific Heat of water may be taken as 4.2 KJ/kg

mw = Mass of cooling water in kg/min
𝑡1 =Inlet Temperature
𝑡2 =Outlet Temperature
Heat Balance Sheet
4. Heat carried by exhaust gases

Heat carried by exhaust gases =mg cg t KJ/min

cg = Specific Heat of Exhaust gases

mg = Mass of Exhaust gases in kg/min
t=Rise in Temperature
Heat Balance Sheet
5. Unaccounted Loss
• There is always some loss of heat due to friction ,leakage and
radiation etc which cannot be calculated Experimentally .
• In order to balance the heat balance sheet, this loss is marked as
unaccounted loss
 Heat Balance Sheet
Si Heat In
Particulars
No KJ %
Total Heat Supplied 100
1 Heat absorbed in IP Produced
2 Heat rejected to the cooling water
3 Heat carried by exhaust gases
4 Unaccounted Loss