Application of a Constrained Layer Damping to reduce pipe vibrations of a Reciprocating Compressor System
conference paper
At an Underground Gas Storage (UGS) plant, a 2-stage four-cylinder reciprocating compressor is installed with a maximum power of 5 MW. The system can operate at many different pressures, from a suction pressure of 31 bara up to a discharge pressure of 168 bara. The flow is controlled by means of different fixed speeds in combination with step less flow reversal control. Since start-up of the system in 2012, there were several vibrations issues, leading to trips of the compressor. The dominant vibrations of parts of the system occurred for different frequencies around 100 Hz. These high frequency vibrations were caused by rather small cylinder displacements which excited mechanical resonances of parts of the system. It is known that high frequency vibrations are rather difficult to mitigate with traditional measures such as pipe supports or by stiffening of mechanical the supporting structures. The vibration amplitudes at resonance are determined mainly by the mechanical damping ratio. In a research project carried by TNO, it was shown that a Constrained Layer Damping (CLD) device can be used very effectively to increase the local damping at rather low costs. To reduce the high frequency vibrations to acceptable levels, a CLD has been applied to a part of the piping in the system. Field measurements have shown a reduction of the vibrations to run safe and reliable for the long term. This paper describes the effective application of a low cost CLD device and the results of field measurements with and without CLD.
TNO Identifier
882265
Source title
Proceedings 11th EFRC Conference, 13-14 September 2018, Madrid, Spain
Collation
8 p.
Place of publication
Delft
Pages
170-177
Files
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