PERFORMANCE AND ANALYSIS OF SINGLE STAGE RECIPROCATING AIR COMPRESSOR TEST RIG.

An experimental test rig has been built to test reciprocating compressors of different size and capacity. The compressors were tested with air as working fluid .The paper provides much needed information regarding the efficiency of the compressors operating under the same conditions with the same system parameters. This paper also reports on investigation carried out on the effect of pressure ratio on indicated power, isothermal efficiency of both compressors. The results show that there is increase in indicated power as the discharge pressure increases, but the isothermal efficiency of both compressors decreases with increase in pressure ratio. Both compressor types exhibit the same general characteristics with respect to system parameters. Apart from this there is no change in volumetric efficiency because the experiment was carried out for constant angular speed of compressor. In addition, a comparative study was carried out for two compressors and the observed differences were analysed. This study was also useful to verify the model’s goodness with the aim of predicting the compressor performance.