Research and development of innovative bidirectional control plate valve for reciprocating compressor

Abstract

Currently, the reciprocating compressor valve operates on a single working principle, where the valve structure relies on the combined force of its own elasticity and gas thrust to drive the movement of the valve disc, and continues to open and close in the way of impact. Due to the defects of the conventional plate valve, such as delayed opening, premature closing, and insufficient full opening time, in combination with the self-acting valve structure and constant volume cylinder where artificial adjustment of compressed air volume is not feasible. Therefore an innovative bidirectional control plate valve has been developed in this study, which employs a linear motor to regulate the valve disc and eliminates structural components such as springs, buffer discs, and valve lift guard. Throughout the entire opening and closing cycle, precise control of the valve disc enables swift operation with prolonged full open state, minimal resistance loss, and absence of impact, vibration or rebound. Its ideal movement mode can directly and accurately achieve stepless capacity regulation. The primary suction valve of the industrial 3LW-5-8 reciprocating compressor is taken as the research subject in this paper. Fluent software is utilized to design the structural parameters of an innovative plate valve, and its feasibility and effectiveness are validated through tests conducted on an automated multi-functional experiment table and an L-type reciprocating compressor. The results demonstrate that the new valve exhibits a 21.52% increase in effective flow area compared to the conventional plate valve, along with a 3.02% increase in exhaust volume and a potential reduction of 2.32% in power consumption when replaced one of the four. Moreover, the innovative bidirectional control plate valve demonstrates precise control over high-frequency motion of the valve disc, effectively addressing inherent limitations of traditional plate valves and exhibiting promising application prospects.