Voltage Dips Influence on Time to Surge in Compressor Application

This article investigates the effects of voltage dips on the operation of an electrical-motor-driven centrifugal gas compressors with major focus on time to surge key performance indicator behavior. Centrifugal and axial compressors are susceptible to phenomena described as surge. Surge is associated with operation in a specific region of the compressor operating area, located on the left-hand side of the so-called “surge line”, where an area of flow instability typically caused by compressor inducer stall which can cause severe damage to machine. The protection from compressor’ surge is one of the most critical turbomachinery control applications: this function is more important in electrical motor driven compressors, because the dynamics of the electrical driver are faster than the anti-surge control system. In order to prevent catastrophic failures of the electrical motor driven compressors is crucial to know the residual time before a surge phenomenon could manifest, also defined as the “time to surge” KPI.