Study of Fault Self-Recovery and Seal Improvement for Centrifugal Compressor

Abstract

For centrifugal compressor, discharge or suction pressure variations due to process fluctuations or balance drum seal degradation can result in rotor thrust increasing which may jeopardize thrust bearing and compressor’s reliability. Also, the leakage flow through balance drum seal can seriously affect the efficiency of compressor. Summarizing the characteristic of axial displacement fault about centrifugal compressor and analyzing the mechanical performance of tilt pads thrust bearing, theory of axial displacement fault self-recovery is presented and realized through experimental study. The method presented in this paper monitors the stiffness of oil film and identifies the reason of axial displacement increasing. Also the low leakage feature of Dry-Gas-Seal (DGS), high reliability of labyrinth, and the feasibility of upgrading existing structure are taken into account at the same time to design a combined labyrinth-dry gas seal system on the balancing drum. Based on the combined seal system, a Fault Self-Recovering (FSR) mechanism for the fault of rotor axial displacement is introduced to assure the minimum oil film thickness was ensured in real time. The modern Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and experimental study were used to validate this concept. The result and relevant information indicate that the method can realize axial displacement fault self-recovering effectively and the combined sealing system could improve the efficiency of the centrifugal compressor about four percent.