Case study

Proc IMechE Part E:

J Process Mechanical Engineering
Vibration analysis and control of a 0(0) 1–9
! IMechE 2018

screw compressor outlet piping system Reprints and permissions:

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DOI: 10.1177/0954408918763561
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Ying Zhao, Jianmei Feng, Bin Zhao , Shuangmei Zhou ,

Zhou Tang and Xueyuan Peng

Abstract
The severe vibration of a screw compressor outlet piping system caused the premature failures of some thermowells and
the unplanned shut down of the compressor system. The root causes of the vibration problem were investigated by
numerical simulations. An acoustic model was established to predict the pressure pulsation of the gas inside the pipelines,
and two finite element models were built to study the vibration characteristics of the overall piping system and of the
thermowells. The numerical results indicated that the vibration problem may be attributed to the excessive pressure
nonuniformity of the gas inside the pipelines, low overall stiffness of the piping system and the first-order structural
resonance occurred on the thermowells. A pulsation attenuator was added and the pipelines were rearranged to reduce
the pressure pulsation, some pipe supports were added to improve the overall stiffness of the piping system, and the
thermowells were reinforced to avoid the first-order structural resonance. After the modifications, the field measure-
ment data showed that the vibration of the piping system decreased significantly, and the modified piping system has been
operating normally for nearly two years.

Keywords
Piping system, vibration, gas pulsation, structural resonance, compressor

Date received: 28 August 2017; accepted: 5 February 2018

Introduction to the guide support was adopted; nevertheless,

Compressors are widely used to pressurize the gas
in petrochemical industries. The vibration issue is a
potential threat to the integrity of the compressor
system. Excessive vibrations induced by the gas pul-
sation or structural resonance may lead to premature
failure of the pipelines, gas leakage and other safety
problems. For example, abnormal vibration of the
outlet piping system of a screw butadiene compressor
used in a chemical plant caused the unplanned shut
down of the compressor system. The screw compres-
sor has four male rotors and six female rotors. The
rated speed, rated motor power and rated flow rate of
the compressor are 2950 r/min, 1500 kW, and 15,277
m3/h, respectively. The inlet pressure and temperature
of the compressor are 159 kPa and 318 K, respectively,
and the outlet pressure and temperature are 530 kPa
and 374 K, respectively. During the operation, the
vertical vibration velocity at the first elbow after the
outlet muffler was 38.8 mm/s, which far exceeded the
allowable value of 16 mm/s.1 Moreover, the fatigue
fractures occurred on the root of some thermowells,
as shown in Figure 1. To control the vibration and
ensure the production, the temporary measure of
changing the elastic support near the outlet muffler
severe vibrations still occurred in the main pipelines
and thermowells. As a result, vibration analysis and
corresponding control measures were urgently needed
to ensure the safety and reliability of the compressor
system.
The gas pulsation and mechanical vibration of the
piping systems have drawn much attention in the past
few decades. Some researchers are devoted to improv-
ing the accuracy of theoretical analyses and numerical
simulations of the gas pulsation and piping vibration.
Koai and Soedel2,3 and Wu et al.4 developed acoustic
models to evaluate the gas pulsations in the screw com-
pressors. Papes et al.5 developed a mathematical model
to predict the pressure pulsation in a screw expander
inlet pipe. Xu et al.,6 Ghanbariannaeeni and
Ghazanfarihashemi,7 and Zhan and Duan8 developed
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an, PR China
Corresponding author:
Jianmei Feng, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong
University, No. 28, Xianning West Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710049, PR
China.
Email: jmfeng@mail.xjtu.edu.cn
2 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)
Figure 1. Some failed thermowells in the piping system.
theoretical models to predict the pressure pulsations in
the reciprocating compressors. In addition, Lee et al.,9
Dweib,10 and Li and Yang11 studied the acoustically
induced piping vibrations. Some other researchers
focused on controlling the gas pulsation and vibration
of the pipelines. Some authors investigated the acoustic
characteristics of the volume-choke-volume filter,
perforated tube mufflers, Helmholtz resonator, perfo-
rated tube, orifice plate, and a two-tank element in the
reduction of the gas pulsations of the reciprocating
compressor piping systems.12–17 Mujic et al.18 and
Wu et al.19 suppressed the gas pulsations of the screw
compressors by modifying the shape of the discharge
port and applying a pressure pulsation dampener in
the discharge chamber, respectively. Moreover, Mani
and Senthilkumar,20 Mamaghani et al.,21 and
Rechenberger amd Mair22 investigated the vibration
control of the piping systems using the dynamic
vibration absorber, nonlinear energy sink, tuned mass
dampers, respectively. Liang et al.23 solved the vibration
problem in a reciprocating compressor inlet pipeline.
However, little research has been published regarding
the vibration analysis and control of the screw compres-
sor piping systems. Therefore, it is of great significance
to investigate the root causes and elimination measures
of the excessive vibrations in this screw compressor
outlet piping system.
In this paper, the main causes of the severe vibration
of the screw compressor outlet piping system were
investigated by numerical simulations of the gas pulsa-
tion and mechanical vibration of the piping system.
Moreover, some practical measures were proposed to
solve the vibration problem of the piping system.
Analysis of the causes of vibration
There are two vibration systems in the compressor
piping system: the acoustic system and the mechanical
system. Both of these systems have an infinite number
of natural frequencies. A resonance is likely to occur
when a particular acoustic or mechanical natural fre-
quency (MNF) is in coincidence with the excitation
frequency. The first-order excitation frequency can be
determined by the following equation
N
fex,1 ¼ Z ð1Þ
60
where N is the rotating speed, and Z is the male rotor
number of the screw compressor. The first-order exci-
tation frequency of this screw compressor outlet
piping system is 196.67 Hz, and the integer multiples
of this frequency are also excitation frequencies.
Acoustic simulation
Gas pulsation is one of the important excitation
sources of the vibrations in the compressor piping
system. Reducing the gas pulsation within the allow-
able range is an effective method to control the vibra-
tion in the compressor piping system. The transfer
matrix method was adopted to predict the gas pulsa-
tion in the compressor piping system. The piping
system can be divided into some basic elements,
such as pipe, valve, tee, and volume. Each element
has a transfer matrix. For example, the transfer
matrix of the uniform section straight pipe can be
represented as follows
2 a 3
cosð!l=aÞ j sinð!l=aÞ
6
To,i ¼ 4
S 7
5 ð2Þ
S
j sinð!l=aÞ cosð!l=aÞ
a
where the subscripts i and o represent the inlet and
outlet node numbers of the acoustic element, respect-
ively, ! is the angular frequency, l is the pipe length, a
is the sound speed, and S is the flow area of the pipe.
The transfer matrix of the overall piping system is
obtained by multiplying the transfer matrices of all
the acoustic elements, as expressed in the following
" # " #
pn p1
¼ Tn,n1 Tn1,n2   T3,2 T2,1 ð3Þ
n 1
where p1 , pn and 1 , n are the pulsating components
of the pressure and mass flow of the start and end
nodes of the piping system, respectively. The acoustic
natural frequencies can be obtained with boundary
conditions of the piping system. Moreover, the pres-
sure nonuniformity and shaking forces can be calcu-
lated. The pressure nonuniformity i is defined by the
following
ð pi Þ  ð pi Þmin
i ¼  max  ð4Þ
1
ð pi Þmax þ ð pi Þmin
2
where ð pi Þmax and ð pi Þmin are the maximum and min-
imum pressures at the node, respectively.
Zhao et al. 3

Figure 2. Acoustic model of the outlet piping system.

The acoustic model of this compressor outlet

piping system consists of 84 elements and 103 nodes,
as shown in Figure 2. The main pipeline, reflux pipe-
line and small-bore attachments were modeled by
the pipe, tee, and valve elements. The outlet muffler
was simplified as a volume-choke-volume model. The
non-reflecting boundary condition was applied to
node 45, and the close-end boundary conditions of
the small-bore attachments, such as the thermowells
and pressure gauges, were applied to nodes 46–58.
The periodic mass flow at the discharge port is the
main excitation of the pressure pulsation in the screw
compressor outlet piping system.18 As for a single
working chamber, the mass flow through the dis-
charge port during the discharge process can be cal-
culated by the following Figure 3. Pressure nonuniformity results of the outlet piping
system.
dV
 ¼ U ¼  ð5Þ
dt
Mechanical vibration analyses
where  and U are the mass flow and volumetric flow Mechanical vibration analyses play an important
through the discharge port, respectively,  is the dens- role in the optimization of the piping systems.
ity of the gas, and V is the volume of the working The MNFs of the piping system and the correspond-
chamber. The rate of change of V can be calculated ing mode shapes are investigated by modal analysis,
by the geometric properties of the rotors and the and the vibration responses of the piping system
rotating speed of the male rotor.2 Because this under the action of dynamic excitation loads can be
screw compressor has four male rotors, four mass predicted by harmonic response analysis. The finite
flow excitations of the same amplitudes but different element method was used to calculate the MNFs,
phase angles were applied to nodes 1, 4, 7, and 9, mode shapes and vibration responses of the piping
respectively. system. The motion equation of the discrete finite
The acoustic analysis results showed that while no element model of the piping system can be expressed
acoustic resonance occurred in the outlet piping as follows
system, the pressure nonuniformity of most nodes in
the acoustic model exceeded the allowable value of Mx€ þ Cx_ þ Kx ¼ FðtÞ ð6Þ
2%24 under the action of intermittent discharge of
the compressor, as shown in Figure 3. The maximum where M, C, and K are the mass, damping, and stiff-
calculated pressure nonuniformity was 15.5%, located € x,
ness matrices of the piping system, respectively; x, _
on a thermowell. The results indicated that the gas and x are the acceleration, velocity, and displacement
pulsation in the outlet piping system was excessive vectors of the piping system, respectively; and FðtÞ is
and may induce severe vibrations of the pipelines. the excitation loads vector.
4 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

Numerical modeling is the first step of the finite

element analysis, and the selection of the element
type is critical in numerical modeling. The 3D
solid element is the most accurate one, but is time-
consuming. The 1D beam element can be used to
model the slender beams and pipes, but it neglects
the deformations on the cross section. In this outlet
piping system, the lengths of the main pipeline and
reflux pipeline are obviously greater than the diam-
eters. If they are discretized by the 3D solid element,
the element number and computational costs will be
quite large. To reduce the calculation time on the
basis of maintaining good accuracy, a simplified 1D
model was established to predict the vibration char-
Figure 4. Mode shape of the outlet piping system at the 57th-
acteristics of the overall outlet piping system. order MNF of 198.80 Hz.
However, the vibration characteristics of the thermo-
well, especially the dynamic stress response, are sensi-
tive to the installation type and welding stiffness,
which cannot be well considered in a 1D model.
Thus, a detailed 3D model of the thermowell was
developed to evaluate the dynamic characteristics of
the thermowell.

Vibration analysis of the outlet piping system. The mechan-

ical model of the overall outlet piping system was
established, and the modal analysis and harmonic
response analysis were performed. The main pipeline
and reflux pipeline were modeled as 1D beam elem-
ents. The valves were simplified as rigid elements.
The fixed constrains were applied to the locations of
the pipe supports. The acoustic shaking forces
obtained by the acoustic simulation were applied on
the elbows, tees, etc. Note that the pressure pulsations
at different locations may have phase differences, thus
both the amplitudes and phase angles of the acoustic
shaking forces should be considered. In addition, a
damping ratio of 0.01 was used when conducting the
harmonic response analysis.25 The small-bore attach-
ments were neglected in the vibration analysis of the
overall outlet piping system, because they have little
effect on the dynamic characteristics of the overall
outlet piping system.
Modal analysis results showed that the first-order
MNF of the outlet piping system was 0.90 Hz, which
indicated that the overall stiffness of the outlet piping
system was quite low. Figure 4 shows the mode shape
at the 57th-order MNF of 198.80 Hz, which was close
to the first-order excitation frequency of 196.67 Hz. It
can be seen that the main pipeline where the thermo-
wells attached was prone to vibrate under the action
of the first-order excitation loads.
The harmonic response analysis was performed
under the action of the acoustic shaking forces pro-
vided by the acoustic analysis. The vibration velocities
under the excitation frequency of 196.67 Hz were cal-
culated and compared with the field measured data,
as shown in Figure 5. The calculated values were
found to agree well with the measured values.
Accordingly, the mechanical model of the outlet
Figure 5. Comparison of the vibration velocity between the
calculated and measured values.
piping system and the shaking forces were reliable,
which indirectly verified the reliability of the acoustic
model of the piping system.
Vibration analysis of the thermowell. Vibration-induced
failure of the small-bore attachments, also called
small-bore piping (SBP) or small-bore connections
(SBC) is an ongoing challenge during both the
design stage and field-testing. Small-bore attachments
failures due to alternating stresses caused by vibration
typically occurred in the compressor piping systems.
A detailed solid element model including the ther-
mowell and a section of the main pipeline was estab-
lished. The fixed constraint was applied on both ends
of the main pipeline, and then the modal analysis was
conducted. The results showed that the first-order
MNF of the thermowell was 207.4 Hz, which was
close to the first-order excitation frequency of 196.67
Hz; thus, the structural resonance was prone to be
induced during the operation of the compressor.
Zhao et al.
Figure 6. Stress distribution of the thermowell at the first-order excitation frequency of 196.67 Hz.
In addition, the first-order mode shape was the swing
of the thermowell.
The acoustic shaking force was applied on the ther-
mowell, and the additional displacement caused by
the base motion of the main pipeline was imposed
on the attached location of the thermowell on the
main pipeline. The harmonic response analysis was
conducted, and the vibration responses of the thermo-
well were obtained. Figure 6 shows that the maximum
equivalent stress of this model at the first-order exci-
tation frequency of 196.67 Hz was 44.4 MPa, which
exceeded the allowable dynamic stress of 20.7 MPa
(peak-to-peak).26 In addition, the maximum equiva-
lent stress appeared on the root of the thermowell, in
agreement with the location of the fatigue fracture.
The results indicated that the fatigue failures may be
caused by the first-order structural resonance of the
thermowells.
In summary, the root causes of the abnormal
vibration of the screw compressor outlet piping
system may be the excessive gas pulsation in the pipe-
lines, the low overall stiffness of the piping system,
and the first-order structural resonance occurred on
the thermowells.
Vibration elimination measures
The vibration elimination measures were proposed
with three aims: decreasing the gas pulsation in the
pipelines, improving the overall stiffness of the piping
system, and avoiding the first-order structural reson-
ance of the thermowells. The effectiveness of these
measures could be evaluated by the following criteria:
(1) the acoustic natural frequencies and the MNFs of
the pipelines should be shifted away from 20% of the
excitation frequencies; (2) the pressure nonuniformity
of all nodes in the acoustic model should be less than
2%; (3) the dynamic velocity and stress of the piping
system including the thermowells should be less than
16 mm/s and 20.7 MPa (peak-to-peak), respectively.
5
Pulsation reduction
Various measures, such as adding the orifice plate,
adding the pulsation attenuator and changing the
layout of the pipelines, can be taken to eliminate the
pressure nonuniformity of the pipelines. Four differ-
ent pulsation elimination solutions were proposed, as
shown in Figure 7.
The first solution is the rearrangement of the pipe-
lines, as shown in Figure 7(a). The tee joint of the
reflux pipeline (purple pipe) and the main pipeline
(yellow pipe) was moved to the location 1 m behind
the second elbow on the main pipeline after the outlet
muffler. Two elbows on the vertical main pipelines
were changed to straight pipes.
The second solution is the rearrangement of the
pipelines and the addition of an orifice plate, as
shown in Figure 7(b). On the basis of the first solution,
an orifice plate with thickness of 25.4 mm and the aper-
ture ratio of 0.43 was added between the compressor
outlet flange and the muffler inlet flange.
The third solution is the addition of a new pulsa-
tion attenuator, as shown in Figure 7(c). The 1.65-
meter long straight pipe after the outlet muffler was
replaced by a new pulsation attenuator with an outer
diameter of 0.8 m.
The fourth solution is the addition of a new pulsa-
tion attenuator and the rearrangement of the main
pipeline, reflux pipeline, and small-bore attachments,
as shown in Figure 7(d). On the basis of the third solu-
tion, the horizontal pipe after the first elbow was
extended by 4 m, two elbows on the vertical main pipe-
line were replaced by straight pipes, the location of the
tee joint that connected the reflux pipeline and main
pipeline was changed, and the layout of the small-bore
attachments were adjusted.
Figure 8 shows a comparison of the predicted pres-
sure nonuniformity before and after the modifica-
tions. When taking the first solution, the pressure
nonuniformity at most nodes still exceeded the
6 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)
Figure 7. Four pulsation elimination solutions. (a) the first solution, (b) the second solution, (c) the third solution, (d) the fourth
solution.
Figure 8. Comparison of the pressure nonuniformity among
the four pulsation elimination solutions.
allowable value of 2%, and the maximum pressure
nonuniformity was 15.5%. When using the second
or the third solution, the pressure nonuniformity of
most nodes was below the allowable value, but the
pressure nonuniformity of some small-bore attach-
ments cannot meet the requirements. When adopting
the fourth solution, the pressure nonuniformity of all
nodes was below the allowable value, and the max-
imum pressure nonuniformity was 1.5%, which
occurred on a thermowell.
According to API 619,24 the total pressure drop
ratio after outlet pulsation suppressors should not
exceed 2.5% of the average pressure in the screw com-
pressor outlet piping system. In the fourth solution,
the pressure drops of the outlet muffler, the new
pulsation attenuator and the orifice plate inside the
pulsation attenuator were 0.257 kPa, 0.134 kPa, and
11.7 kPa, respectively. The total pressure drop ratio
was 2.28%, which met the requirement of API 619.
After the comparison of the numerical results among
the four solutions, the fourth solution, the most effect-
ive of the four solutions, was adopted to reduce the gas
pulsation inside the pipelines and to decrease the acous-
tic shaking forces acting on the pipelines.
Vibration control of the outlet piping system
Vibration control of the piping system was imple-
mented with two aims: avoiding structural resonance
Figure 9. Locations of the new pipe supports.
and reducing vibration amplitudes. Increasing the
support stiffness and changing the layout of the pipe-
lines are common methods to adjust the MNFs of the
piping system and avoid the structural resonance. To
improve the overall stiffness of the outlet piping
system, some pipe supports were added, as shown in
Figure 9. Two variable spring supports were added at
the bottom of the pulsation attenuator (node 2020) to
support the weight of the new pulsation attenuator
(approximately 2 tons). The poor stability temporary
support before the first elbow (node 50) was changed
to a guide support to improve the stiffness of the pipe-
line in the X direction. Two guide supports were
added on the straight pipe between the first and
the second elbows (node 200 and node 20,260) to
reduce the base motion of the main pipeline where
the small-bore attachments attached. A bearing sup-
port was added on node 250 to improve the stiffness
of the pipeline in the Y direction. A guide support
was added to the vertical pipe of the reflux pipeline
(node 442) to improve its stiffness. A guide support
was added to node 565 to improve the stiffness of the
main pipeline.
After the modifications, the first-order MNF of the
outlet piping system improved from 0.9 Hz to 1.67 Hz,
the high-order MNFs of the outlet piping system
avoided 20% of the excitation frequency of 196.67
Hz, and the maximum vibration velocity obtained by
the harmonic response analysis was 11.40 mm/s,
which was below the allowable value of 16 mm/s.
The results indicated that the overall stiffness of the
Zhao et al.
Figure 10. Stress distribution of the thermowell at the excitation frequency of 196.67 Hz after the modifications.
outlet piping system increased, and the vibration of
the main pipeline decreased; as a result, the excitation
forces acting on the thermowells caused by the base
motion of the main pipeline significantly decreased.
Vibration control of the thermowells
The small-bore attachments, such as the thermowells
and pressure gauges, can be significant risks to the
integrity of the piping systems. Many vibration-
induced failures occur on these seemingly unimportant
parts. Avoiding small-bore attachments is the simplest
method to solve the problem but is not always prac-
tical. Designing the MNFs of the small-bore attach-
ments to be far from the excitation frequencies at the
attached location is an effective method to avoid such
failures. Redesigning small-bore attachments so they
have less unsupported and cantilevered mass can help
to reduce their sensitivity to the vibration; relocating
them to the places with less base motion could signifi-
cantly reduce their vibrations. Remote mounting small-
bore piping with flexible connections, such as tubing or
braided hose, to the vibrating piping is also a good
approach to isolate the attachments from the base
motion of the main pipeline. Studding outlets should
be considered when providing connections for tem-
perature and pressure instruments instead of a canti-
levered pair of flanges.27
The original design of the thermowells may lead to
the first-order structural resonance. Four reinforcing
ribs were added between the cantilevered pair of
flanges and the main pipeline to enhance the stiffness
and adjust the MNFs of the thermowells. The reinfor-
cing ribs were added in the directions both parallel
and perpendicular to the main pipeline. The angle
between the predicted motion of the thermowells
and the axis of the brace was less than 60 .
After the modifications, the calculated first-order
MNF of the thermowell increased to 280.7 Hz,
which was far from the excitation frequency of
7
196.67 Hz. The maximum equivalent stress of the
modified model at the excitation frequency was 2.64
MPa, which was obviously less than the allowable
dynamic stress of 20.7 MPa (peak-to-peak). The max-
imum equivalent stress occurred on the welding loca-
tion between one of the reinforcing ribs and the
thermowell, as shown in Figure 10. The numerical
results implied that the first-order structural reson-
ance of the thermowells was avoided, and the fatigue
life of the thermowells can be significantly improved.
Field measurement results
After the modifications, the field measurement was
conducted. A comparison of the field measurement
data before and after the modifications showed that
the maximum horizontal vibration amplitude of the
piping system decreased from 0.046 mm to 0.012 mm,
representing a 74% reduction, and the maximum ver-
tical vibration amplitude decreased from 0.07 mm to
0.017 mm, representing a 76% reduction. In addition,
the maximum horizontal vibration velocity decreased
from 21.4 mm/s to 6.8 mm/s, representing a 68%
reduction, and the maximum vertical vibration vel-
ocity decreased from 38.8 mm/s to 10.6 mm/s, repre-
senting a 73% reduction. The piping system has been
operating normally for nearly two years after the
modifications, which further verifies the effectiveness
of the vibration control measures.
Conclusions
The root causes of the vibration problem of a screw
compressor outlet piping system were investigated
though the acoustic analysis and mechanical vibration
analyses. It was found that the excessive gas pulsation
inside pipelines, low overall stiffness of the piping
system, and the first-order structural resonance that
occurred on the thermowells were the main causes of
the severe vibrations. To address the vibration issue,
8 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)
some practical improvements, including adding a pul-
sation attenuator and some supports, rearranging the
piping system and reinforcing the thermowells, were
implemented. The effectiveness of these measures was
verified by the numerical results and field measure-
ment data.
The small-bore attachments are important sources
of failures in piping systems but are infrequently
evaluated during the design stage or the field commis-
sioning stage. More attention should be paid to the
small-bore attachments both in the design stage and
after the start-up stage. Removing the small-bore
attachments where possible, redesigning them so they
have less unsupported and cantilevered mass, relocating
them to positions with less base motion, and remote
mounting them are effective methods to reduce vibra-
tion-induced failures of small-bore attachments.
The acoustic and mechanical analyses are neces-
sary for the analysis of the causes of vibration and
control of the compressor piping systems. For new
projects, numerical studies should be conducted in
the design stage to obtain a reasonable design of the
piping layout, equipment layout and other design
details. For the running systems, the numerical simu-
lation is also a cost-effective and time-saving method
to identify root causes and reasonable solutions of the
vibration problems. As gas pulsation is inevitable in
the compressor piping systems, the acoustic simula-
tion is necessary when solving the issue of vibration
in the compressor piping systems.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial
support for the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article: This study was supported by Daqing
Petrochemical Company of China National Petroleum
Corporation.
ORCID iD
Bin Zhao http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2131-8010
Shuangmei Zhou http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9169-150X
Zhou Tang http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5985-456X
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