NUMERICAL MODELING OF THE START UP TRANSIENT IN RECIPROCATING COMPRESSORS

R. LINK(a), C. J. DESCHAMPS(b) (a) Embraco, Rui Barbosa, 1020 89219-901, Joinville, SC Brazil Rodrigo_Link@embraco.com.br (b) Federal University of Santa Catarina 88040-900, Florianpolis, SC Brazil deschamps@polo.ufsc.br ABSTRACT Most simulation methodologies for compressors available in the literature consider a steady state operating condition. However, several phenomena that affect the compressor energy efficiency, noise level and reliability are associated with transient effects that occur when the compressor is either switched on or switched off. This paper presents a methodology, experimentally validated, to simulate the compressor start up, but considering a thermal equilibrium condition. From the results for the voltage during the start up, it is shown that the compressor equalization pressure greatly affects the torque that the electrical motor must overcome. It is also observed that mechanical losses are influenced by the compressor transient operation condition, with the bearing geometry being a factor of particular importance. 1. INTRODUCTION A refrigeration system is usually composed of four main components: compressor, evaporator, condenser and expansion device. The system performance does not rely only on the adequate design of each component, but also on the interaction between all parts of the system. In some situations, this interaction may even negatively affect the compressor performance, causing failures and financial losses. In most refrigeration systems the cabinet temperature is used as a control parameter to switch on and off the compressor in order to guarantee the required temperature in each specific compartment. During such operation transients, the compressor is subject to critical conditions, characterized by higher loads on the mechanical kit. In the initial stages of the compressor start up there is also a significant impact on the performance of valves and mufflers, since the equalized system pressure leads to high mass flow rates for the refrigerant. Additionally, due to the low compressor speed during start up, the suction valve is kept open for a longer period of time and, depending on its design, may present oscillating motions that increase the noise level significantly during the compressor acceleration. Another important aspect of the low speed regime observed in the first compressor cycles is that fully hydrodynamic lubrication may not occur, with a mixed or even lubrication regime resulting instead. Such lubrication conditions can originate metallic contact between shaft and bearings, increasing mechanical losses and causing wear. Most reports in the literature dealing with compressor transients consider the compressor coupled to a refrigeration system. Usually, the main focus of these studies is on the system performance and, for this reason, a very simple modeling approach is adopted for the compressor, with no consideration of mufflers, valves and bearings (Lunardi, 1991; Koury et al., 2001; Jabardo et al., 2002; Browne and Bansal, 2002). For instance, the compressor mass flow rate in such approaches is usually obtained from a curve fitting of experimental data obtained for different compressor speeds.

The 22nd IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, Beijing, China, 2007

Currently, there is a great demand for compressors with higher energy efficiency and lower noise levels, preferably with no cost increase. Refrigeration compressors belong to a very competitive market in which the time required to design and launch new products is becoming ever shorter. This paper is concerned with the development of a numerical model, experimentally validated, to simulate transients in compressors and assist their design. As a first stage, the study considers the start up of a reciprocating compressor, but assuming thermal equilibrium for its components that occurs under a cyclic operation condition. 2. MATHEMATICAL MODEL The methodology adopted here to simulate the compressor is a version of that proposed by Ussyk (1984). The code accounts for piston displacement as a function of crankshaft angle, the thermodynamic process inside the cylinder, mass flow rate through the valves, valve dynamics, gas pulsation inside the mufflers and refrigerant thermodynamic properties. Several parameters are calculated during the compressor cycle, such as instantaneous pressure throughout the compressor, mass flow rate, valve dynamics, energy and mass losses, refrigerating capacity, etc. The control volumes considered are: compression chamber, suction and discharge mufflers, internal environment, compressor housing, electric motor and bearings. A steady state condition is assumed for all temperatures with the exception of the gas inside the cylinder. The compressor modeling was carried out by mathematically describing each one of the compressor components. Moreover, the compressor is simulated decoupled from the refrigeration system and, therefore, the variation in the pressures in the suction and discharge lines during start up had to be derived from experimental data. 2.1. Compression Chamber An integral formulation of the conservation equation is used to model the thermodynamic process for the gas inside the cylinder. The internal temperatures of the compressor have to be supplied as inputs for the simulation program. This is accomplished by an interface with a second simulation code, which evaluates the temperature for eight control volumes through energy balances and using some of the compressor simulation program outputs. Figure 1 shows a schematic representation of the compression chamber, with the identification of energy fluxes through the control volume boundaries. Based on the energy conservation, the following equation can be written for the energy inside the cylinder:

d & & & & & (mcil ecil ) = me (e + p / ) e ms (e + p / ) s m fpc (e + p / ) fpc + W + Q dt

(1)

By manipulating equation (1), as proposed by Todescat et al. (1990), and assuming that inside the cylinder only the internal energy is relevant, the following equation can be derived for the gas temperature variation:

& & Q + msuc (hes hcil ) + mrdesc (hed hcil ) + & dTcil 1 pcil = pcil d dt mcil cv Tcil & & & & & (msuc mdesc mrsuc m fpc + mrdesc ) Tcil Tcil dt

(2)

The mass flow rates present in the above equation are associated with leakage through the clearance between the piston and cylinder and to the flow through the valves. The former is evaluated by assuming the presence of pure refrigerant in the clearance, whereas the latter is estimated through a procedure explained in the next section.

The 22nd IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, Beijing, China, 2007

The control volume balance equations for the compressor components are simultaneously and iteratively solved since they depend on all compressor energy fluxes. The transient equations associated with the compressor simulation code are solved via a fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. Thermodynamic properties for the refrigerant were evaluated through a program link to the REFPROP database.
& m e ( e + p / ) e & m s (e + p / )s

Valve Placa Plate

Tcil , pcil

& Q

& W

Piston Pisto
& m fpc (e + p / ) fpc

Figure 1. Schematic representation of the compression chamber.

2.2. Valves Reed valves used in hermetic compressors are called automatic because they open and close depending on the pressure difference between the cylinder and the suction/discharge chamber, established by the piston motion. Such valves are usually made using special kind of steel and their dynamics can be expressed in a simplified way, using a one-degree-of-freedom model as follows:

& meq && + ceq s + k eq s = Fv F0 s

(3)

where F0 is a pre-load force acting on the reed. The valve stiffness and damping coefficients, keq and ceq, respectively, as well as the valve mass, meq, are determined experimentally. The force, Fv, resulting from the pressure distribution on the reed surface is obtained with reference to the effective force area, Aef, which is determined from the pressure difference across the valve, pv, according to Aef = Fv/pv. The effective force area can be understood as a parameter related to how efficiently the pressure difference pv opens the valve. On the other hand, the mass flow rate through the valve is evaluated from data for effective flow & area, Aee. For a certain pressure drop, Aee expresses the ratio between the actual mass flow rate, mv , and the theoretical value given by an isentropic flow condition. Therefore,
& mv = Aee pup

2k 2 ( R p / k R pk +1) / k (k 1)RTup

(4)

where pup and Tup denote pressure and temperature of the flow upstream, k is the specific heat ratio, R is the refrigerant gas constant and Rp is the pressure ratio between the cylinder and discharge/suction chamber. Naturally, values for pup, Tup and Rp vary according to the flow condition through the valve, critical or sub critical, and also with the flow direction.
2.3. Mufflers Gas pulsation in mufflers was simulated via a one-dimensional formulation for the flow dynamics, represented by conservation equations for mass, momentum and energy. Wall effects on the flow

The 22nd IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, Beijing, China, 2007

were taken into account through estimates of friction force and heat transfer, obtained from standard correlations developed for steady flow through pipes. The pressure drop at geometric singularities was determined from classical correlations in terms of the area ratio. The system of differential equations is discretized through a finite volume methodology and solved by a numerical procedure developed by Deschamps et al. (2002). In this procedure, the solution domain is divided into small control volumes and the governing differential equations are integrated over each control volume with the use of Gauss's theorem. Convective transport at the control volume faces was approximated with the UPWIND interpolation scheme. A fully implicit time discretization scheme was applied to unsteady terms in the equations. The system of algebraic equations was solved with the Tridiagonal Matrix Algorithm (TDMA), in a segregated approach. The coupling between pressure and velocity was handled through the SIMPLEC algorithm extended to flows of arbitrary Mach number.
2.4. Bearings Mechanical losses are originated through friction in the piston-cylinder assembly bearing, crankshaft bearings, crankpin-big eye bearing, piston pin-small eye bearing and thrust bearing. Each one of these bearings is identified in Figure 2 for a reciprocating compressor adopted in a refrigeration application.
Crankpin / Big Eye Bearing Thrust Mancal axial Bearing Piston / Cylinder Bearing
Pino e olhal Piston Pin / menor Small Eye Bearing Mancal principal

Crankshaft Bearings
Mancal secundrio

Figure 2. Bearing system of a reciprocating compressor. If the bearing speed is very low there will be no pressure build up in the lubricant film and the loading will be carried by metallic contact; a condition known as boundary lubrication. As the speed is increased, the hydrodynamic pressure builds up in the lubricant film and a mixed lubrication takes place, in which the loading is supplied by both the hydrodynamic pressure and the contact pressure between the two surfaces. At high speeds the hydrodynamic pressure increases such that both surfaces are completely separated by a lubricant film. The Stribeck curve, illustrated in Figure 3, plays an important role in identifying boundary, mixed and hydrodynamic lubrication regimes. For the hydrodynamic lubrication, the methodology developed by Manke (1991), which solves the Reynolds equation, was adopted for the crankshaft bearings. In the case of mixed lubrication at the early moments of the compressor start up, the linear relationship for the friction factor proposed by Nogueira et al. (2002) was employed. In order to account for the two lubrication regimes, the friction factor needed to evaluate the mechanical loss in the radial bearings was written as a & function of the Stribeck number. Accordingly, the mechanical loss in the bearing, E m , is given by:

The 22nd IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, Beijing, China, 2007

 R & E m = f + m Fm Rm cm + where the modified friction factor, f , is defined as follows:

f
+

(5)

= f

cm Rm

(6)

The thrust bearing and the piston-cylinder assembly are modeled as axial bearings fully filled with oil. When the Stribeck number indicates a mixed lubrication condition, the corresponding friction factors for both axial bearings are multiplied by a correction factor.

f - Fator de atrito

Mixed

Boundary

Hydrodynamic Hidrodinmica

Stribeck Number

Nmero de Stribeck

Figure 3. Stribeck curve for friction factor; adapted from Czichos (1978).
2.5. Rotor-crankshaft assembly The evaluation of the mechanical kit acceleration during the compressor start up requires that the total resistive torque acting on the crankshaft mechanism are known. Such torque is caused by bearing friction and the force required to compress the gas inside the cylinder. The torque supplied by the motor can be described by its performance curve, considering also the action of an auxiliary coil. Therefore, the instantaneous angular shaft velocity is given by: & = 0 + t
& = Tq motor Tq resist It

(7) (8)

where

3. RESULTS 3.1. Validation of the simulation methodology The methodology developed to simulate the reciprocating compressor under a transient operation condition was verified with reference to experimental data. Figure 4 shows numerical and experimental results for the variation in dimensionless pressure, normalized by the stabilized suction pressure value, over time in the compression chamber. As can be seen, there is a good agreement between the two sets of results, supporting the validation of the methodology here presented. An interesting detail that can also be observed in this figure is the associated low speed of the compressor during the first two cycles. After 6 cycles the compressor has almost reached its full velocity of a steady cyclic operation condition, but suction and discharge pressures are far from the stabilized values.

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3.2. Effect of start up on bearing mechanical losses As already discussed, during the early stages of the compressor start up a mixed lubrication regime may occur due to the low speed of the compressor. As a consequence, trends expected for mechanical losses can be very different to those associated with hydrodynamic lubrication. To illustrate this, Figure 5 shows mechanical loss for the crankshaft as a function of the dimensionless bearing radius, considering the compressor during start up and under the steady cyclic condition. It becomes apparent that for the stabilized cyclic condition the mechanical loss increases as a cubic function of the dimensionless bearing radius, a result in line with the hydrodynamic lubrication theory. On the other hand, for the start up transient this trend is not observed and in fact a linear variation is observed. This is a consequence of an earlier transition to the mixed lubrication regime for larger bearing radius.
7.0 Experimental Predicted 6.0

5.0

p*

4.0

3.0

2.0

1.0 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 Time [s] 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.20

Figure 4. Comparison between numerical and experimental results for dimensionless pressure in the compression chamber.
5.0 Start up Steady 4.0 Mechanical Loss [W]

3.0

2.0

1.0

0.0 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 Rm* 1.2 1.4 1.6

Figure 5. Effect of dimensionless bearing radius on mechanical loss according to the compressor operation condition. The 22nd IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, Beijing, China, 2007

3.3. Effect of the system equalized pressure on the minimum starting voltage A very important aspect in electrical motor design is to establish the minimum torque needed to accelerate the compressor to the required stabilized operation condition, given an equalized system pressure. The time the starting device is kept active is also an influential parameter, because the longer it stays activated the greater is the energy consumption. Figure 6 shows results for the dimensionless minimum starting voltage, normalized by the nominal voltage, as a function of the starting device action time, considering two equalized pressures. As would be expected, the model predicts that the starting voltage must increase with the equalized pressure. The numerical prediction for pe* = 1.4, and a starting device action time of 0.6 s, is in close agreement with experimental data, providing additional evidence for the adequacy of the simulation methodology here present.
0.96 0.95 Dimensionless Starting Voltage 0.94 0.93 0.92 0.91 0.90 0.89 0.88 0.87 0.86 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 Starting Device Action Time [s] 1.0 1.2 Predicted (pe* = 1.0) Predicted (pe* = 1.4) Experimental (pe* = 1.4)

Figure 6. Dimensionless minimum voltage for compressor start up.

4. CONCLUSIONS

Compressor start up transients affect the mechanical kit load, the performance of valves and mufflers, and the lubrication regime of bearings. Most studies in the literature dealing with compressor transients consider the compressor coupled to a refrigeration system, with a detailed account of the system performance, but using very simple approaches to the compressor modeling, usually based on a curve fitting of experimental data. This paper presents a numerical methodology, experimentally validated, to simulate transients in compressors, which takes into account the performance of all compressor components. Numerical predictions were compared to experimental data and a good agreement was verified, demonstrating that the model can be used as a valuable tool for the analysis of compressors. It has been demonstrated that the influence of design parameters, such as the system equalized pressure and bearing geometry, on the compressor performance can be easily investigated.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study forms part of a technical-scientific cooperation program between the Federal University of Santa Catarina and EMBRACO. Support from FINEP (Research and Project Funding) is also acknowledged. The 22nd IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, Beijing, China, 2007

NOMENCLATURE

cv e h Ier m p Rm Tqmotor

specific heat at constant volume specific energy enthalpy rotor and shaft moment of inertia mass pressure bearing radius electrical motor torque volume density specific volume angular velocity at previous time

cm Fm It Rm* & m & Q T Tqresist & W

w &

radial clearance between bearing and shaft bearing load total moment of inertia dimensionless bearing radius mass flow rate heat transfer at the cylinder wall temperature resistive torque power to the gas inside the cylinder wall shear stress angular velocity of rotor and shaft angular acceleration of rotor and shaft

Subscripts cil cylinder s discharge orifice suc flux at the suction valve rsuc backflow at the suction valve es suction chamber

e fpc desc rdesc ed

suction orifice clearance between cylinder and piston flux at the discharge valve backflow at the discharge valve discharge chamber

REFERENCES

1. Browne MW, Bansal PK. 2002, Transient simulation of vapour-compression packaged liquid chillers, Int. J. Refrig. 25:597-610. 2. Czichos H. 1978, Tribology: A System Approach to the Science and Technology of Friction, Lubrication and Wear. Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company. 3. Deschamps CJ, Possamai FC, Pereira ELL. 2002, Numerical simulation of pulsating flow in suction mufflers. Proc. Int. Compressor Engineering Conference at Purdue: C11-4. 4. Jabardo JMS, Mamani WG, Ianella MR. 2002, Modeling and experimental evaluation of an automotive air conditioning system with a variable capacity compressor, Int. J. Refrig. 25:11571172. 5. Koury RNN, Machado L, Ismail KAR. 2001, Numerical simulation of a variable speed refrigeration system, Int. J. Refrig. 24:192-200. 6. Lunardi MA. 1991, Numerical Simulation of the Dynamic Behavior of Household Refrigerators. M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil (in Portuguese). 7. Manke AL. 1991, A Numerical Methodology to Simulate Radial Bearings under Dynamic Load. M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil (in Portuguese). 8. Nogueira I, Dias AM, Gras R, Progri R. 2002, An experimental model for mixed friction during running-in, Wear. 253:541-549. 9. Todescat ML, Ferreira RTS, Prata AT. 1990, Thermal Balance for Reciprocating Compressors, Internal Technical Report EMBRACO. 10. Ussyk MS. 1984, Numerical Simulation of the Performance of Hermetic Reciprocating Compressors. M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil (in Portuguese).

The 22nd IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, Beijing, China, 2007