Methods to Evaluate and Measure Power of Pneumatic System and Their Applications

Abstract

Pneumatic system has been widely used throughout industry, and it consumes more than billions kW h of electricity one year all over the world. So as to improve the efficiency of pneumatic system, its power evaluation as well as measurement methods should be proposed, and their applicability should be validated. In this paper, firstly, power evaluation and measurement methods of pneumatic system were introduced for the first time. Secondly, based on the proposed methods, power distributions in pneumatic system was analyzed. Thirdly, through the analysis on pneumatic efficiencies of typical compressors and pneumatic components, the applicability of the proposed methods were validated. It can be concluded that, first of all, the proposed methods to evaluation and measurement the power of pneumatic system were efficient. Furthermore, the pneumatic power efficiencies of pneumatic system in the air production and cleaning procedure are respectively about 35%–75% and 85%–90%. Moreover, the pneumatic power efficiencies of pneumatic system in the transmission and consumption procedures are about 70%–85% and 10%–35%. And the total pneumatic power efficiency of pneumatic system is about 2%–20%, which varies largely with the system configuration. This paper provides a method to analyze and measure the power of pneumatic system, lay a foundation for the optimization and energy-saving design of pneumatic system.