Detailed explanation of working principle of centrifugal compressor

The working principle of centrifugal compressor is to work on gas by rotating impeller at high speed, and to efficiently convert mechanical energy into gas pressure energy by centrifugal force effect, so as to realize the continuous gas compression process from low-pressure suction to high-pressure discharge. Its core lies in the dynamic conversion mechanism between kinetic energy and pressure energy.
Detailed explanation of working principle of centrifugal compressor
First, the core working principle
1. Basic mechanism
The working principle of centrifugal compressor is based on Bernoulli equation and Euler equation in fluid mechanics, and the pressure and kinetic energy of gas in centrifugal field are improved by the high-speed rotating impeller. The specific process can be divided into:
Mechanical energy → kinetic energy conversion: when the impeller rotates at high speed, gas is sucked from the impeller and the core area, and rotates with the impeller;
Centrifugal force: under the centrifugal force, the gas is thrown to the outer edge of the impeller, the speed is greatly improved, and the pressure is increased;
Kinetic energy → pressure energy conversion: then the gas enters the diffuser, and the speed decreases in the diffuser channel, and the kinetic energy is converted into static pressure energy, which further increases the gas pressure;
Second, the multistage compression workflow
Multi-stage compression is the main scheme to improve the total pressure ratio
Step-by-step compression: the gas passes through a plurality of impellers in turn, and each impeller compresses the gas once, and the pressure gradually increases.
Inter-stage cooling: after each stage of compression, the gas temperature will increase. In order to improve the compression efficiency of the next stage, an intercooler is often set to cool the gas, so that the temperature will drop before entering the next stage of impeller.
Structural segmentation: the compressor is divided into multiple “sections” with the intercooler as the boundary, and each section can contain one or more “stages”; The “cylinder” refers to the part accommodated by the casing, which can accommodate one or more sections to form a flexible structural combination.
Advantages of multistage compression
Through multi-stage series connection, centrifugal compressor can break through the limitation of single-stage pressure ratio and achieve higher total pressure ratio. At the same time, interstage cooling can also reduce gas temperature, reduce compression power consumption and improve overall efficiency.
Third, the performance characteristics and application fields of centrifugal compressor
By virtue of its unique working principle, centrifugal compressor has formed distinct performance advantages and applicable scenarios.
Main advantages:
It has large gas volume, compact structure, small floor space and light weight.
The exhaust is continuous and uniform, without buffer devices such as tundish, and the operation is stable;
Small vibration, few wearing parts and low maintenance cost;
The gas is not polluted by oil, which can adapt to various driving forms and has strong flexibility.
Typical application fields:
Petrochemical industry: used for process gas compression, feed gas transportation, etc.
Energy and electricity: gas turbine supporting air pressurization, natural gas pressurization, etc.
Metallurgical industry: blast furnace blast, oxygen compression, etc.
Air separation industry: used in air separation equipment to separate industrial gases such as oxygen and nitrogen after air compression;
Food/medicine/electronics industry: provide clean compressed air for the production process and ensure product quality.
The above is an introduction to the “detailed explanation of the working principle of centrifugal compressor”. Centrifugal compressor is a speed compressor that relies on the change of kinetic energy to improve gas pressure. This kind of compressor not only has compact structure, continuous and uniform exhaust, but also has few wearing parts and low maintenance cost. It has become the key equipment in petrochemical and air separation industries. If necessary, please contact Turbo-Tech for sales.