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Using Outside Air for Flooded Oil Screw Compressors at an Industrial Facility
Date
2014Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
A study has been performed to determine if inlet air temperature provides an increase in compressor efficiency, seen
through reduced power for some specified mass flow. A theoretical analysis suggests that power is not a function of
volumetric flow. However, energy use will be a function of mass flow, since processes demand a given mass flow,
which is a function of inlet density and time loaded. For flooded oil screw compressors, our experimental results
show that for a given mass flow (scfm), compressor power and energy are not a function of inlet air temperature.
We believe this to be due to hot compressor oil mixing with inlet air, which dampens any temperature variation due
to the high thermal mass of oil. This provides the compressor a near constant effective inlet temperature regardless
of outdoor temperature and therefore a near constant power for a given flow.
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Citation
Hunt, D. G.; Terry, S. (2014). Using Outside Air for Flooded Oil Screw Compressors at an Industrial Facility. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /152190.