In Uence of An Orifice Plate On Gas Pulsation in A Reciprocating Compressor Piping System

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Influence of an Orifice Plate on Gas Pulsation in a Reciprocating Compressor

Piping System
Article in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part E Journal of Process Mechanical Engineering · January 2013
DOI: 10.1177/0954408913511803
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Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, Part E: Journal of Process
Mechanical Engineering
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Influence of an Orifice Plate on Gas Pulsation in a Reciprocating Compressor Piping System

Xiaohan Jia, Boxiang Liu, Jianmei Feng and Xueyuan Peng
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part E: Journal of Process Mechanical Engineering published
online 17 December 2013
DOI: 10.1177/0954408913511803
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Original Article
Proc IMechE Part E:

J Process Mechanical Engineering
Influence of an orifice plate 0(0) 1–14
! IMechE 2013
on gas pulsation in a reciprocating Reprints and permissions:
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compressor piping system DOI: 10.1177/0954408913511803

uk.sagepub.com/jpme
Xiaohan Jia1, Boxiang Liu2, Jianmei Feng1 and Xueyuan Peng1
Abstract
This paper presents an investigation of the influence of the orifice plate parameters and installation positions on the
attenuation of gas pulsation in a reciprocating compressor piping system. The acoustic wave theory and transfer matrix
approach were applied to establish the simulation model, in which the valve chamber was assumed to be the pipe–
volume–pipe element. Based on the model, the effects of the size and installation positions of the orifice plate on the gas
column natural frequencies and pressure pulsation amplitudes were analyzed for the discharge piping system of a two-
stage reciprocating air compressor. A test rig was built to validate the simulation results. The gas column natural
frequencies and pressure pulsation amplitudes at different locations of the piping system were measured to verify the
model. A favorable agreement was noted, with a maximum error of 2.1% for the natural frequencies and 6.3% for the
pulsating amplitudes. The influence of the orifice plate on the gas column natural frequency varied according to its
position and parameters. The results showed that all orders of natural frequencies decreased slightly as the inner
diameter of the orifice plate decreased when the orifice plate was installed downstream of the vessel. However, the
distribution of the gas column natural frequency changed when the orifice plate was installed upstream of the vessel. The
pressure fluctuations in the piping system could be attenuated substantially by placing an orifice plate of reasonable
parameter downstream of the vessel, within a distance of 0.4 m. The degree to which the orifice plate could attenuate
the gas pulsation varied under different operating conditions. However, its attenuation effect was more sensitive to the
compressor speed than to the discharge pressure.
Keywords
Pulsating pressure, reciprocating compressor, orifice plate, gas column natural frequency, acoustic wave theory
Date received: 4 July 2013; accepted: 14 October 2013
the transfer matrix method for the compressor piping

Introduction
system. Elson and Soedel1 claimed that acoustic
Gas pulsation is a result of the discontinuous nature theory could be employed for relative pressure pulsa-
of gas flow in a reciprocating compressor. The gas tion amplitudes as great as 20%, and he obtained a
pulsation in the compressor piping will degrade the good correlation between the computed and experi-
compressor’s performance, impede the work of the mental results for compressor discharge plenum pres-
compressor valves and excite piping vibration, leading sure oscillations when the relative pressure pulsation
to fatigue failure of the piping, loose fastenings, over- amplitude was as large as 15%.2 Based on these
loaded compressors, and even serious safety prob- results, acoustic theory appeared to be valid for
lems. In the petrochemical field, gas pulsation most compressor pulsation calculations. Ficken and
and piping vibration have been recognized as the Fleishman3 gave a time-periodic solution for a non-
most frequent causes of unplanned shutdowns and linear wave equation, which also was called a
accidents involving reciprocating compressors.
Therefore, prediction and control of gas pulsation 1
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University,
and piping vibration in a compressor piping system Xi’an, China
2
are very important issues. School of Energy, Power and Mechanical Engineering, North China
Previous research has been concerned with the Electric Power University, Baoding, China
mathematical prediction and experimental determin-
Corresponding author:
ation of pressure pulsations in a reciprocating com- Jianmei Feng, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong
pressor piping system. Almost all of these studies have University, Xi’an 710049, China.
been based on the one-dimensional wave theory and Email: jmfeng@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

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2 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)
nonlinear telegraph equation. Havlová4 had studied always limited and the installation position of the ori-
on the periodic solutions of a nonlinear telegraph fice plate hardly meets the requirement of the theor-
equation and McKean5 had devoted to the analog etical boundary conditions. Iocco17 provided the
of the Chapman–Enskog–Hilbert expansion for a acoustic impedance of the orifice plate and recom-
class of solutions of the telegraph equation. mended an empirical formula for the orifice inner
Brablik6,7 declared that the calculation of gas pulsa- diameter. Broerman et al.18 pointed out that the use
tions in piping system should involve the simultan- of an orifice to control the cylinder nozzle resonance
eous solution for volume velocity flow through the was common, but significantly decreased the unit per-
valve. Grover deduced the acoustic wave equation formance and capacity. They developed a new pulsa-
and obtained a steady-state solution for a piping tion control device named the Virtual Orifice to
system, in which a velocity proportional term replace the compressor nozzle orifice, which reduced
accounted for the wave attenuation caused by pipe overall pulsations by about 50%. It is worth noting
friction.8 Brunner9 established the model for simulat- that the damping effect of such a resistance element
ing the pressure pulsations in the piping of a large depends greatly on its location and parameters.
reciprocating compressor with kinematic, thermo- Almasi19 stated that experience-based utilization of
dynamic and valve motion equations. Compressor the orifice plate required an ‘‘orifice justification
pulsations were shown by this model to be important report’’ to ensure that the orifice was necessary, and
to compressor efficiency. A variation of the transfer that the proper orifice size and location was used.
matrix method was used to relate pressure and volume These studies provided guidance for designing the ori-
velocity at various positions along the compressor fice plate, but provided limited quantitative analysis.
piping system.10 Binder’s modification to Kirchhoff’s Therefore, it is necessary to research the effects of
classic attenuation theory was employed by others to orifice plate parameters, such as orifice diameter
account for the turbulent effects associated with a and installation position, on the attenuation of gas
large amplitude pressure wave.11 Funk and Robe12 pulsation in practical applications.
used the nonlinear forms of the one-dimensional con- This paper presents a gas pulsation simulation
tinuity and momentum equations in their investiga- model, which uses the transfer matrix method to pre-
tion of large amplitude pressures pulses in dict the pressure pulsation in a reciprocating compres-
pneumatic transmission lines. They included a general sor piping system with orifice plates. In this model, the
pipe friction term, depending on Reynolds’s number, discharge valve chamber was considered a pipe–
to encompass both the laminar and turbulent flow. volume–pipe element. The emphasis was on the effects
Sun et al.13 developed a program for computing gas of the orifice plate installation positions and param-
pulsating pressure in a parallel piping system on the eters on the pressure pulsation reduction and the gas
basis of acoustic wave theory and the transition factor column natural frequency in the piping system.
method. They determined that the optimum piping The damping effects of the orifice plate under variable
system layout was obtained by adjusting the branch operating conditions were also analyzed. A two-
pipe length, the pipe diameter, the vessel position, and stage compressor piping system was designed and
the junction position. A general program was devel- built to verify the predicted results of the proposed
oped to predict the gas pulsation and the gas column model.
natural frequency of a complex piping system using
the transfer matrix method.14 Ren et al.15 improved
the analytical model by coupling the effect of valve
dynamics with the piping acoustic response. This Theoretical analysis
model did not consider the valve chamber effect on
the pressure pulsation of the compressor cylinder
Basic assumptions
flange. The fluctuating flow in compressor piping lines is
There are no studies on the effects of an orifice caused by the periodical reciprocating action of the
plate on the pulsating pressure attenuation in a com- piston. The flow in the piping system is composed of
pressor piping system. The orifice plate is widely used, two parts: the mean flow and the pulsating flow. The
especially as an on-site solution, for reducing the gas pulsating pressure is generally small compared to the
pulsation. Its effects depend strongly on its dimension mean pressure, and the mean flow velocity (usually
and installation position. At present, although the 15–25 m/s) is far smaller than the sound velocity (for
mechanism for using an orifice plate to reduce gas air 340 m/s). In addition, the piping diameter is much
pulsation has been explained theoretically.16 The less than the length along the lines for a compressor
selection of orifice plate parameters and the installa- piping system. Under these circumstances, it is obvi-
tion position in practical applications has not been ous that the problem can be addressed by the acoustic
quantitatively evaluated. The theoretical analysis wave theory and a one-dimensional model is sufficient
assumed that the orifice plate installed at the exit of for a fairly accurate engineering analysis.
a container of infinite volume could effectively damp The mathematical description of the plane wave
gas pulsation. However, the actual vessel volume is theory is the plane wave equation, which is derived

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Jia et al. 3
from the equation of motion and the equation of where is the pulsating mass rate and S is the flow
continuity under the following assumptions. area of the pipe.
1. The fluid behaves as an ideal gas.

Analytical model
2. The sound velocity and the density of fluid in the
pipe are assumed to be constant. This study analyzed the second-stage discharge piping
3. The acoustic process is a reversible adiabatic system of a reciprocating compressor, in which the
process. discharge pressure was 0.4 MPa and the volume flow
rate was 0.48 m3/min. Its parameters are shown in
Table 1. The compressor ran at a speed of 817 r/min
and the connecting pipe diameter was 32 mm. As
Acoustic wave equation shown in Figure 1(a), the discharge piping system
The one-dimensional wave equation with damping is consisted of a compressor, a buffer tank, and down-
as follows: stream connecting pipes with orifice plates and bents.
The simplified physical model is shown in Figure 1(b),
@2 p 1 @2 p R @p including 11 elements with 12 nodes. Node 12 was the
¼0 ð1Þ opening boundary at the end of the pipe and Node 1
@x2 a2 @t2 a2 @t
was set at the compressor discharge port as the com-
where p is the pulsating pressure, t is the time, x is the pressor boundary condition. The valve chamber was
displacement, a is the sound velocity, and R is the assumed to be the pipe–volume–pipe element to allow
coefficient of friction. examination of the effects of a discharge valve cham-
Assuming the motion of p to be sinusoidal and ber, in which the valve chamber volume was almost
substituting p with p ¼ B ex ej!t into equation (1), equal to the sweeping volume, as given by Diao.20 The
the solution of the pulsating pressure is indicated in test orifice plate was installed in position A or B as
the form of a hyperbolic function as follows shown in Figure 1(b).
The discharge piping system with the orifice plate,
p ¼ ½A chð þ jkÞx þ B shð þ jkÞxej!t ð2Þ
shown above, was divided into three types of typ-

where A and B are the complex constant, which are ical elements: the constant cross-section straight
determined by the boundary conditions; j is the com- pipe element, the vessel element and the orifice plate
plex number; k is the wave number and is equal to the element. The transfer equations for each element were
!
a , ! is the circular frequency; and is the damping as follows.
11
factor of the piping
1 12 given by Binder as
2 ! " kt
¼ Da 2 0 þ 0 þ 0 cp 2 , where D is the diameter 1. Constant cross-section area straight pipe element
of the pipe, is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid, " (shown in Figure 2)
is the eddy viscosity of the fluid which depends on the By solving the linear damping plane wave equa-
Reynolds number, 0 is the mean density of the fluid, tion, the transfer relation between the inlet and the
kt is the thermal conductivity of the fluid, and cp is the outlet of the constant cross-section straight pipe
specific heat of the fluid at constant pressure. was determined to be
Based on the motion equation, the pulsating mass
flow rate can be obtained. The change of the ampli- 9
a
tude of the pulsating pressure and the pulsating mass pout ¼ pin chð þ jkÞl in shð þ jkÞl > =
S , ð4Þ
rate with the position x is given as follows S

out ¼ pin shð þ jkÞl þ in
chð þ jkÞl >
;
) a
px ¼ A chð þ jkÞx þ B shð þ jkÞx
S ð3Þ
x ¼ ½A shð þ jkÞx þ B chð þ jkÞx
a where l is the length of the pipe.
Table 1. The main specifications of the studied air compressor.
Model V–1.05/10 Piston stroke 89 mm

Suction pressure 0.1 MPa Rated speed 830 r/min
Volume flow rate 1.05 m3/min Shaft power 414 kW
Rated discharge pressure 1.0 MPa Suction temperature 20 C
Cylinder diameter (1st/2nd) 105 mm/55 mm Discharge temperature 120 C
Number of cylinders 2 Connecting rod length 196 mm
Buffer tank volume 0.00353 m3 Crank radius-connecting rod length ratio 0.227

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Figure 1. The discharge piping system of a reciprocating compressor.
Figure 2. The constant cross-section area straight pipe

element.
Figure 4. The simplified orifice plate element.
becomes a resistant element. The transfer charac-

teristic of the orifice plate is thus
9
Figure 3. The vessel element. Rc =
pout ¼ pin in
S , ð6Þ
;
out ¼ in
2. Vessel element (shown in Figure 3)
The vessel element was considered as a special
straight tube, in which its sectional area was where Rc is the lumped damping coefficient of the
much larger than the length. The volume of the orifice plate given by Diao20 as
vessel was just equal to the product of the cross-
0 12
section area and the length. The transfer equation 2 2
for this type of element was expressed as B 0:707 C D
Rc ¼ @1 þ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiA 1 u0 ,
1 Dd 2
2 d2
9
pout ¼ pin >
=
V! , ð5Þ where d is the orifice diameter of the orifice plate, D
>;
out ¼ pin j þ in is the diameter of the pipe, and u0 is the mean flow
a2
velocity of the fluid in the piping.
where V is the vessel volume.

3. Orifice plate element (shown in Figure 4)
Solving the model
When the fluid flows through the orifice plate, a In general, the complex piping system of a compres-
local pressure drop forms and the orifice plate sor consists of several different types of pipe

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Jia et al. 5
Figure 5. Recording of the pulsating pressures in the piping system.
elements, such as constant cross-section pipes, redu- Experimental set-up

cing pipes, vessels, branching points, orifice plates
and so on. The inlet and outlet of each element
Recording of the pulsating pressures
are the nodes that are shared by the two neighbor- The pressure pulsation measurement system consisted
ing elements. The beginning and the end of the of dynamic pressure transducers, the signal condi-
piping system are treated as the boundary points, tioner and the data acquisition system. The measure-
including the compressor terminal, the opening ter- ment system diagram and the configuration of the
minal and the blind pipe terminal. Each of these piping system are shown in Figure 5. Eight dynamic
elements is analyzed using the solution of the pressure transducers were installed at different pos-
wave equation above. The relationships between itions in the piping system. The pressure at each pos-
the pulsating pressure and the pulsating mass rate ition was measured via the piezoresistance pressure
from the start of the piping to the end are estab- transducer, and the signal was treated by the data
lished through the corresponding transfer equations acquisition system.
for each element. The excitation source is the
compressor. Measurement of the gas column
At the one end of the pipe (Node 1, in Figure 1)
natural frequencies
connected to the cylinder, the boundary condition is
treated as the compressor terminal. To simply deter- As there was no excitation source in the piping system
mine the flow velocity at this end, the following may under the compressor not-running condition, the exci-
be assumed: (1) the opening and closing of the valve tation necessary for measuring the gas column natural
are completed instantaneously; and (2) the velocity frequencies was generated by a speaker. The speaker
at the boundary is proportional to the piston vel- was placed 80 mm from the end of the piping system
ocity, and the ratio is the piston area to the flow to avoid destroying the opening terminal condition on
area of the pipe during the period of the valve open- the pipe end. The test system was built as shown in
ing. The pulsating pressure is the value to be Figure 6. The signal generator FG708S with an active
determined. speaker was used as the accurate frequency excitation
At the other end of the pipe connected to the source and an active microphone with the oscillo-
atmosphere, the boundary condition is considered graph TDS1001B was used as the wave receiver to
the opening terminal. The pulsating pressure is zero measure the gas column natural frequencies of the
and the pulsating flow velocity is the parameter to be piping. When the received wave shape matched the
simulated. excitation source wave shape and the sound pressure
To obtain the pulsating pressure at any location in reached the maximum, the corresponding excitation
the piping system, it is necessary to use the equations frequency was identified as the certain order of gas
and boundary conditions given above. The pulsating column natural frequencies of the piping system. In
pressure can then be determined by the computer pro- other words, the excitation frequency under which the
gram developed in this paper through the medium of gas column resonance occurred was considered the
the transfer matrix method. gas column natural frequency.

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Figure 6. Measurement of the gas column natural frequencies.
In the test, the excitation signal generated by the shown in Figure 1), and at different distances from the
low frequency generator was recorded through vessel to analyze its damping effects on the gas pulsa-
Channel 1 of the oscillograph, and the gas column tion under these different conditions. The gas column
vibration wave received by the microphone was rec- natural frequency in the piping system under each
orded through Channel 2 of the oscillograph. The dif- condition was also measured to provide a baseline
ferent orders of gas column natural frequencies could for designing a reasonable piping system and avoiding
be obtained by comparing the excitation signal in lower order resonance in the piping. In addition, the
Channel 1 with the received wave in Channel 2. For attenuation effect of the orifice plate on the gas pul-
example, when the excitation was outputting a sine sation was studied under different operating condi-
wave of 20 Hz, as shown in Figure 7(a), the same tions by changing the discharge pressure and the
sine wave was indicated in Channel 1, but clutter compressor speed. The compressor speed ranged
near zero was received by Channel 2. This suggested from 200 r/min to 800 r/min and the discharge pres-
that this excitation frequency was not an order of gas sure increased from 0.4 MPa to 1.0 MPa.
column natural frequencies, because no gas column
resonance in the piping was excited. Similarly, as
shown in Figure 7(b), the wave indicated in Channel Results and discussion
1 was not the same frequency as the wave in Channel
2. In addition, the sound pressure was not up to the
Validation of the model
maximum even though the same frequency waves The simulated results of the gas column natural fre-
were seen in Channel 1 and Channel 2, as shown in quencies and the pulsating pressures developed in the
Figure 7(c). Therefore, the frequencies measured in above model were validated by experimental data, as
Figure 7(b) and (c) were not any order of gas shown in Figure 8. As can be seen, the predicted gas
column natural frequencies. When the excitation fre- column natural frequencies were in good agreement
quency from the generator was 123.8 Hz, as in with the experimental data. The first order of the gas
Figure 7(d), the tested wave in Channel 2 was the column natural frequencies was not involved due to
same frequency sine wave as in Channel 1. More test limitations. The maximum error between the
importantly, the sound pressure reached the peak simulated results and the experimental data was less
and resonance occurred. This meant that this excita- than 2.1%. The valve chamber was assumed to be the
tion frequency was one order of the natural frequen- pipe–volume–pipe element in the theoretical model
cies of the piping. Based on this method, a series of was considered as the main reason of the error.
gas column natural frequencies of the piping could be The measured and simulated relative pulsating
obtained by gradually changing the excitation pressure amplitudes, at different positions in the
frequency. piping system, are shown in Figure 9. We defined
the pressure fluctuations as
Test contents
pmax pmin
¼ 100% ð7Þ
The influence of the orifice plate on the pressure pul- p0
sation of the piping system was investigated by chan-
ging the ratio of the orifice diameter to the pipe where pmax and pmin were the maximum pressure and
diameter from 0.35 to 1. The orifice plate was located the minimum pressure in one period and p0 was the
at position A or position B (positions A and B are average pressure, obtained by the integral mean

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Jia et al. 7
Figure 7. Wave acquisition for measuring the gas column natural frequencies: (a) 20 Hz; (b) 41.39 Hz; (c) 113.6 Hz; (d) 123.8 Hz.
However, the maximum error of the pressure fluctu-

ations was less than 6.3%. It can be seen that the agree-
ment between the test data and the predicted results was
good. Meanwhile, the measured pulsating pressure
waves at different points were similar to the simulated
waves as shown in Figure 9, but the simulated pulsating
pressure waves were all smoother than the measured
waves. This is because the influence of the valve move-
ment was ignored in the theoretical model.
The theoretical model had been validated by the
experiment. More detailed experimental investiga-
tions had been carried out to understand the influence
of the orifice plate on the gas column natural fre-
quency and pressure pulsation at various orifice
plate diameters and installed positions. Furthermore,
Figure 8. Comparison between the measured and simulated the pressure pulsations in the piping with the orifice
gas column natural frequencies. plate at various discharge pressures and compressor
speeds were also investigated by the experiment.
method. The measured values of the pressure fluctu- Influence of orifice plate on gas column
ations were 3.92% (Node 3), 4.14% (Node 4), 4.48%
natural frequencies
(Node 5), and 8.28% (Node 9) and the simulated results
were 4.15% (Node 3), 4.16% (Node 4), 4.36% (Node The orifice plate installed upstream of the vessel (position A)
5), and 7.88% (Node 9). Compared to the measured
data of the pressure fluctuations, the simulated results 1. Ratio of the orifice diameter to the pipe diameter
were larger on some nodes and smaller on others. The influence of the orifice plate size and its

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Figure 9. The pulsating pressure amplitude (Node 3, 4, 5 and 9 are shown in Figure 1. The orifice plate was on position A and the
orifice diameter ratio was 0.55). (a) Node 3, (b) node 4, (c) node 5 and (d) node 9.
changed because the gas column structure in the

piping system changed due to the installation
of the orifice plate. As can be seen, although
most orders of gas column natural frequencies
remained constant when the orifice diameter
ratio was larger than 0.4, the orders 5 and 6 nat-
ural frequencies increased with the increase in the
orifice diameter. When the orifice diameter ratio
was less than 0.4, most orders of natural frequen-
cies decreased greatly. The order 3 natural fre-
quency decreased from 82.3 Hz to 59.2 Hz and
the order 4 from 122.3 Hz to 82.5 Hz. This indi-
cated that different sizes of orifice plate, when
installed upstream of the vessel, not only changed
the values of the frequencies, but also the distri-
Figure 10. Influence of the orifice plate size on gas column bution of the frequencies. Furthermore, the
natural frequencies. decreased natural frequencies had detrimental
effects on the prevention of low frequency reson-
position relative to the vessel on the gas column ance in the piping system. Therefore, an orifice
natural frequencies is shown in Figure 10. In the plate upstream of the vessel should be used
figure, r is the ratio of the orifice diameter to the with caution when the diameter ratio is less
pipe diameter. The gas column natural frequency than 0.4.

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Jia et al. 9
Figure 11. Influence of distance between the orifice plate and Figure 12. Influence of the orifice plate size on gas column
the vessel on gas column natural frequencies. natural frequencies.
2. Distance between the orifice plate and the vessel

The influence of the distance between the orifice
plate and the vessel on the gas column natural
frequencies is shown in Figure 11, in which y is
the distance between the orifice plate and the
vessel. It can be seen that most orders of natural
frequencies did not change, but orders 3 and 8
changed greatly. When the distance was less than
0.4 m, all orders of natural frequencies remained
almost unchanged. However, with the increase in
distance, the order 3 natural frequency increased
and the order 8 natural frequency first decreased
and then increased. These results imply that the
orifice plate should be installed close to the
Figure 13. Influence of distance between the orifice plate and
vessel, within the 0.4 m range in this test piping
the vessel on gas column natural frequencies.
system, to maintain a stable distribution of the
gas column natural frequencies.
The orifice plate installed downstream of the vessel plate and the vessel on the gas column natural
(position B) frequencies is shown in Figure 13. It can be seen
that distance had a small influence on the natural
1. Ratio of the orifice diameter to the pipe diameter frequencies when the orifice plate was installed
The influence of the orifice plate size and its pos- downstream of the vessel. Moreover, the first
ition relative to the vessel on the gas column nat- two orders of natural frequencies increased when
ural frequency is shown in Figure 12. The first two the orifice plate was near the vessel. This meant
orders of the natural frequencies increased when that the orifice plate was more effective in prevent-
the orifice plate was installed downstream of the ing low frequency gas column resonance when it
vessel. The higher orders of frequencies decreased was placed as close as possible to the vessel.
slightly after installing the orifice plate. The first
two orders of frequencies increased and the higher
orders of frequencies decreased when the orifice
diameter ratio decreased. Generally speaking,
Influence of orifice plate on pressure pulsations
all orders of natural frequencies had only The orifice plate installed upstream of the vessel (position A)
slight changes. The results suggest that the orifice
plate installed downstream of the vessel was better 1. Ratio of the orifice diameter to the pipe diameter
than the piping without the orifice plate in pre- The pressure fluctuations at different points with
venting the low frequency resonance caused different diameters of orifice plates are indicated
by the increase in the low orders of natural in Figure 14. When the vessel was close to the
frequencies. valve chamber, within 0.2 m (Figure 14(a)),

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the pressure pulsation in the piping system

upstream of the orifice plate increased significantly
when the orifice diameter was less than 0.55, while
the pressure pulsation in the piping downstream of
the orifice plate was a little attenuated on Node 1,
Node 2, and Node 3. For example, when the ori-
fice diameter ratio was 0.35, the maximum pres-
sure fluctuation increased by 11%, or 2.5 times
higher, than that of the piping system without
the orifice plate. These results suggest that using
a small orifice plate as a resistance element caused
an increase in flow resistance, which led to a
higher pressure fluctuation upstream of the orifice
plate. However, as shown in Figure 14(b), if the
vessel was placed away from the valve chamber,
for example at a distance of 1.0 m, the pressure Figure 15. Influence of the distance between the orifice plate
pulsation in the piping upstream of the orifice and the vessel on pressure pulsation (r ¼ 0.5).
plate was reduced significantly. For instance,
when the orifice diameter ratio was 0.4, the pres-
sure pulsation was damped from 10.9% to 5.9%
on the compressor end. The pressure fluctuations
were attenuated slightly downstream of the orifice
plate in the piping system. The results indicate that
an orifice plate installed upstream of the vessel was
hardly helpful in attenuating the pressure pulsa-
tion throughout the piping system, when the
vessel was very near to the compressor end.
Figure 15 shows the influence of the distance
between the orifice plate and the vessel on the
pressure pulsations. As can be seen, the closer
the orifice plate was to the vessel, the larger the
magnitude of the attenuation. However, the reduc-
tion effects were almost the same when the dis-
tance was less than 0.4 m. In other words, an
orifice plate installed within a certain distance of
the vessel could ensure the damping effects; the
zero distance from the vessel, developed theoretic- Figure 16. Influence of the orifice plate size on pressure
ally above, was unnecessary. pulsation (y ¼ 0.2 m).
Figure 14. Influence of the orifice plate size on pressure pulsations (y ¼ 0.1 m): (a) distance between valve chamber and vessel is
0.2 m; (b) distance between valve chamber and vessel is 1.0 m.

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Jia et al. 11
The orifice plate installed downstream of the vessel

(position B)
1. Ratio of the orifice diameter to the pipe diameter

The influence of the orifice plate’s size and position
on the pressure pulsations is shown in Figure 16.
The pressure pulsation decreased throughout the
piping system as the orifice diameter ratio
decreased, but the magnitude of pressure pulsation
damping in the piping downstream of the orifice
plate was larger than the damping upstream of the
orifice plate.
plate and vessel on the pressure pulsation is shown
in Figure 17. The pressure pulsation could be atte-
Figure 17. Influence of the distance between the orifice plate
and the vessel on pressure pulsation (r ¼ 0.5). nuated substantially if the orifice plate was placed
within 0.4 m of the vessel. However, when the
Figure 18. Pressure pulsations in the piping under varied discharge pressures (y ¼ 0.2 m, r ¼ 0.5, compressor speed ¼ 830 r/min):
(a) 0.4 MPa; (b) 0.6 MPa; (c) 0.8 MPa; (d) 1.0 MPa.

XML Template (2013) [11.12.2013–9:33am] [1–14]
Figure 19. Pressure pulsations in the piping under varied compressor speeds (y ¼ 0.2 m, r ¼ 0.5, discharge pressure ¼ 1.0 MPa);
(a) 200 r/min; (b) 400 r/min; (c) 650 r/min; (d) 830 r/min.
distance increased, the pressure pulsation pressure pulsation even with variable discharge pres-
decreased slightly, and even increased in some sure, especially in the piping downstream of the orifice
locations. These results indicate that the pressure plate.
pulsation in the piping system could be controlled
effectively by installing an orifice plate of the At varied compressor speeds. Figure 19 indicates the
proper size, as close to the vessel as possible. pressure pulsation in the piping with the orifice plate
downstream of the vessel at various compressor
speeds. The different compressor speeds created differ-
Orifice plate installed under variable ent pulsation excitation levels and different gas column
parameters in the piping system. However, as can be
operating conditions
seen, the pressure pulsation could always be attenuated
At varied discharge pressures. The pressure pulsation in by the orifice plate at different compressor speeds. In
the piping system with an orifice plate downstream of other words, the same orifice plate placed downstream
the vessel and variable discharge pressure is shown in of the vessel could attenuate the pressure pulsation
Figure 18. The attenuation effectiveness of the orifice maximally under certain speeds and its reduction
plate increased with the increase in discharge pressure. effect became weaker if the speed changed.
For example, when the discharge pressure increased
from 0.4 MPa to 1.0 MPa, the maximum magnitude of
Uncertainty analysis
the pulsation attenuation on Node 7 increased from
12% to 42%. However, the pulsation amplitude The uncertainty of the static calibration system is
upstream of the orifice plate was almost the same. mainly from the pressure gauge and reading error.
This suggests that an orifice plate placed downstream The precision level of the pressure gage is 0.25 and
of the vessel could be used to effectively attenuate the the range is 1.0 MPa, the absolute error of the

XML Template (2013) [11.12.2013–9:33am] [1–14]
Jia et al. 13
pressure gauge is 1 ¼ 0:25 % 1:0 ¼ 0:0025 MPa. Moreover, the damping effects of the orifice plate
The maximal value of the pressure calibration is under variable operating conditions were also ana-
0.3 MPa, so the relative measurement error is lyzed. Based on the experimental investigations pre-
sented in this paper, the following conclusions were
0:0025 reached:
1 ¼ ¼ 0:833%, ð8Þ
0:3
1. A model was developed to predict the gas pulsa-
The minimum range of the pressure gauge is tion in the piping system of a reciprocating air
0.005 MPa, so the absolute reading error is compressor and was validated experimentally. To
2 ¼ 0:005 MPa and the relative error is consider the effect of the valve chamber, it was
assumed to be a pipe–volume–pipe element. The
0:005 good agreement between the simulation results
2 ¼ ¼ 0:5%, ð9Þ
1:0 and the experimental measurements indicated
that the presented model could effectively describe
According to uncertainty theory, the uncertainty of the pressure fluctuation characteristics in a com-
the static calibration system is pressor piping system.
2. The orifice plate installed upstream of the vessel
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
significantly changed the distribution of gas
c ¼ 21 þ 22 ¼ 0:97%: ð10Þ
column natural frequencies, but almost all orders
of gas column natural frequencies remained con-
The uncertainty of the pressure transducers stant if the orifice plate was installed downstream
employed in the experiment is mainly from the follow- of the vessel. In addition, the orifice size and its
ing aspects. The first is the nonlinear error of the pres- distance from the vessel also had the effect on the
sure transducer, which is almost due to the natural frequencies when it installed upstream of
manufacturing material itself. The piezoresistive pres- the vessel.
sure transducers were employed in current study, the 3. The orifice plate installed upstream of the vessel
nonlinear error is j3 j 5 0:1% and the resolution was hardly helpful in attenuating the pressure pul-
ratio 4 is 0.25%. Meanwhile, the influence of the sation throughout the piping system, especially
temperature on the transducers is 5 ¼ kðt2 t1 Þ, when the vessel was near to the compressor
where the factor jkj 5 1 104 = C FS. During the end. However, when the orifice plate installed
experiment, the maximal ambient temperature of downstream of the vessel, the pressure pulsation
the pressure transducers t2 is 103 C. According to throughout the piping could be effectively
the specification of the pressure transducer, t1 is attenuated and the magnitude of the attenuation
12 C and the influence of the temperature on the increased as the orifice diameter ratio and dis-
transducers is tance between the orifice plate and the vessel
decreased.
5 ¼ 0:01% ð103 12Þ ¼ 0:91%: ð11Þ 4. The pressure pulsation in piping with a fixed ori-
fice plate could always be attenuated when the
Moreover, a DC power supply was used for the compressor operation conditions changed, and
transducers and its uncertainty 6 is 0.1%. The uncer- the magnitude of the reduction was dependent
tainty of the data acquisition system (signal condi- on the discharge pressure and the compressor
tioner and data acquisition card) 7 is 0.001%. The speed. The attenuation effects increased when the
uncertainty of the pressure transducers applied in the discharge pressure increased.
experiment is
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi Funding
m ¼ 23 þ 24 þ 25 þ 26 þ 27 ¼ 0:95%, ð12Þ This study was supported by a program for the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Research Project:
51306136).
and the total uncertainty of the experimental system is
Conflict of interest
¼ c þ m ¼ 0:97% þ 0:95% ¼ 1:92%: ð13Þ
None declared.
References
Conclusions
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An experimental investigation were carried out for tion line oscillation research. In: Proceedings of Purdue
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in a reciprocating compressor piping system. pp.311–315.

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Inﬂuence of an Oriﬁce Plate on Gas Pulsation in a Reciprocating Compressor

Xiaohan Jia Jianmei Feng

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Influence of an Orifice Plate on Gas Pulsation in a Reciprocating Compressor Piping System

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Proc IMechE Part E:

compressor piping system DOI: 10.1177/0954408913511803

Xiaohan Jia1, Boxiang Liu2, Jianmei Feng1 and Xueyuan Peng1

Date received: 4 July 2013; accepted: 14 October 2013

the transfer matrix method for the compressor piping

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2 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

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1. The ﬂuid behaves as an ideal gas.

Table 1. The main specifications of the studied air compressor.

Model V–1.05/10 Piston stroke 89 mm

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4 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

Figure 1. The discharge piping system of a reciprocating compressor.

Figure 2. The constant cross-section area straight pipe

Figure 4. The simplified orifice plate element.

becomes a resistant element. The transfer charac-

where V is the vessel volume.

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Figure 5. Recording of the pulsating pressures in the piping system.

elements, such as constant cross-section pipes, redu- Experimental set-up

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6 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

Figure 6. Measurement of the gas column natural frequencies.

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However, the maximum error of the pressure ﬂuctu-

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8 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

changed because the gas column structure in the

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2. Distance between the oriﬁce plate and the vessel

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10 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

the pressure pulsation in the piping system

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The orifice plate installed downstream of the vessel

1. Ratio of the oriﬁce diameter to the pipe diameter

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12 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

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14 Proc IMechE Part E: J Process Mechanical Engineering 0(0)

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